Total Drama Arctic Tundra
by Niihih
Summary: 17 contestants from all of Total Drama history and one newcomer compete in a frozen, arctic wasteland for the million! The challenges are both physically and mentally draining, all accumulating into the most grueling season to date! Betrayal, romance, alliances and more in this torturous season known as Total Drama Arctic Tundra!
1. Part 1: The Contestants

**Part 1: The Contestants**

**Gwen**

With dark bags under her half-opened eyes, Gwen continued applying her eyeliner in front of the mirror in her room, which had become a mess ever since she had received the news of the coming season of Total Drama that she had agreed to sign up for. It had been a little over a year since she was last part of it, and while she wasn't surprised by the call, she was still stressed over any new season. Ever since becoming the very first winner, she had become something of a favorite of the executives, and the fame she received made it nearly impossible to have a normal life outside of the show. She still had her solitude in her dark, drab room making enough money to live off of with her Youtube vlogs, but there was always something in the deepest part of her conscience quietly and constantly reminding her of the times she had on Total Drama.

Sure, it was always dangerous, sometimes even life-threatening, but she had become accustomed to the thrill of the twisted challenges and the insane, occasionally infuriating contestants she faced. With four seasons already under her belt, she hoped to become the first ever contestant to strike lightning twice.

**Lightning**

"Sha-hey, Mrs. Keeton!" shouted Lightning as he jogged past an older woman getting into her car.

"I told you not to come around here anymore!" the old lady shouted back, waving her purse in the air.

"See ya later, Mrs. Keeton!" He looked to the sky with a smile on his face, basking in the sunlight as he made his way down the neighborhood at a brisk pace. 'Of course they would pick me again,' he thought. 'I've got everything! Who wouldn't want some of Lightning?'

In front of someone's house to his right was a short-haired dog with its eyes tracking him carefully, letting out a low growl as he passed by.

"Hah!" Lightning laughed. "Even animals want a piece of this! Come get it, killer!" At his command, the dog broke into a sprint after Lightning as he threw his arms into the air and ran as fast as he could.

**Cody/Ella**

Traveling in the back of a gray sedan, nervously staring straight ahead at the back of the driver's seat ahead of him, Cody had remained quiet since getting in the car. Although he typically enjoyed attention from the opposite sex, there were some exceptions that made him a bit uneasy. And, despite Sierra being nowhere in sight, he couldn't help but feel the gaze of warmth and happiness from Ella, seated beside him in her usual pink dress and bow, weighing down on him. The skies were dark and the windows were caked in rain, making it one of the most dreary days in recent memory, and yet Ella remained comprised of sunshine and butterflies.

They were being transported to the nearest airport for the newest season of Total Drama, and Cody had been blissfully unaware that he lived so close to Ella all these years. It wasn't necessarily that he was frightened by her, it was just that...

"I really liked you in World Tour," she said out of nowhere, making Cody nearly jump out of his seat. She looked surprised, saying, "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no, of course not!" Cody said with a nervous laugh. "But I have to ask... You aren't the type of person who... stalks other people... or obsesses over them... are you?"

With a warm smile, Ella replied, "Don't be silly, of course I wouldn't do those things! I remember my school councilor's words very clearly: People need their own personal space, and if you ever deny someone of that, then they have every right to smack a bi-"

"Okay! I get it," Cody intervened. "As long as you're at least sane."

"Mmm-hmm!" Ella said with a nod.

**Duncan/Zoey**

In the back seat of a similar gray sedan, two more contestants were being driven to an airport, but these two had already gotten to know one another and spent most of the trip laughing.

"No, I'm serious!" Duncan said with a smile. "The guy was tailing right behind my chopper and as soon as I let off the gas to give him a piece of my mind, he gets out wanting an autograph for his daughter."

"Really?" Zoey laughed. They were both laid back and relaxed in their seats, but each of them had the familiar excitement of getting back into the action.

"So where's Svetlana, anyway? I figured you two would come in a pair."

"You mean Mike?" Zoey crossed her arms and shot a mean look at the driver, who hadn't said a word since they got in the car. "They said it was only me this time, and that Mike already had more than enough time in the spotlight during All-Stars. Speaking of which, when did you get out of jail?"

Duncan shrugged at the thought of jail, playing it cool as he said, "Pfff, they let me out a few months back. I think it was the executives of Total Drama who pulled some strings to let me out early. Not gonna complain."

"And now you're out of the frying pan and into the fire."

"At least this fire comes with the chance at a sweet million."

**DJ/Bridgette**

DJ and Bridgette had been quietly smiling at one another for the past fifteen minutes while their car had been parked in the airport's lot. Not much had been said since meeting up, but they continued to stare wordlessly as they awaited their driver's return.

"Hey!" came a familiar voice accompanied with heavy tapping on the window. "Ain't you two gonna say something or just sit there?" It was Chef Hatchet, his grizzly face frightening the two of them as he held it a few inches away from the glass. "Come on, we got a flight to catch!"

**Heather/Dakota**

"What do you mean you don't have Diet!?" Heather yelled at an employee behind the counter of a food stand at the airport. "Do you honestly think everyone drinks those fatty sodas!?"

"I-it's new regulation, ma'am," the cashier said shakily. "There's nothing I can do! We have lemonate, though! Or water!"

Heather grunted and took her hands off the counter. "Fine. Pink lemonade, and make it quick."

The cashier bit her lip a little and said, "We don't have pink..."

"Then MAKE it pink!" she yelled as the cashier nodded and hurried off quickly. As she turned around, she saw the faces of several onlookers staring at her awkwardly before getting back to what they were doing as if nothing happened. "This airport sucks..." she mumbled to herself.

"Tell me about it," another girl's voice said nearby as Heather turned to face Dakota standing beside her, her skin and hair back to their original colors and standing at her normal height again. "Not a single person recognizes me here!"

Heather raised an eyebrow and said, "And who are _you_ supposed to be?"

"Oh, don't play that game, Heather. I'm not in the mood right now." She let out a heavy sigh and continued with her sob story. "It seems like ever since the effects of the mutation wore off, I've just been a nobody. People don't even remember me and how I used to be a star! I suppose, as they say, the brightest burn the fastest... But I'm here to change that. Once people see me on this season of Total Drama, I'll make a comeback! People all over the world will remember this face, and I'll get a hot guy who's way better than that nerd Sam! Who does he think he is, dumping ME!? 'Oh, you're back to being shallow again, hurr durr-' whatever! I'll show everyone! And this time I'm in it to win that million! Uhh..." She looked around, her eyes coming across the concerned cashier behind the counter, but not seeing Heather anywhere. "Heather...?"

**Beardo/Trent**

While in the waiting area of the airport terminal with headphones drowning out the other sounds, Beardo sat patiently as his head bobbed up and down to the beat of the music. When the track ended and he opened his eyes, he realized he was sitting across from one of the original cast members, Trent, with his guitar case set up beside him. They smiled and waved at one another quietly before the next track began and Beardo closed his eyes yet again to enjoy it.

"And then the guy tells me straight to my face: If you've got a problem with me, that eyebrow piercing is coming out the hard way." Duncan stopped in his tracks when he got to the waiting area with Zoey at his side, smiling at the sight of Trent. "Hey, man! What's up!"

"Oh, Duncan!" Trent said in return as the two bumped fists. "Good to see you! Sure has been a while."

"Sure has! I guess we're the first four here." Duncan scanned the waiting area, entirely bereft besides Trent and Beardo. "I dunno about you guys, but I'm gonna have fun while we're waiting. You coming, Red?"

Zoey pointed to herself as if to ask if that's who she was referring to and said, "Oh, no thanks, I'll wait here for the others. I can't wait to see who else is going to be here this season!"

"Suit yourself. I'm off."

"Don't get in too much trouble," Trent called after him.

"No promises!"

**Krystal/Alejandro/Tyler**

Holding up a pocket mirror outside of a food stand to check her makeup was a new contender, Krystal. Her jet black hair hung down beneath her shoulders, a few strands finding their way in front of her dark green eyes as she pushed it back. Her skin was rather pale, and freckles were lined up beneath her eyes and across the bridge of her nose.

As she gazed into the mirror, she noticed a tall, dark, and handsome man standing behind her and she tilted the mirror to accommodate. It was Alejandro sporting his sly grin as usual. She closed her mirror abruptly, her expression remaining the same as she crossed her arms.

"My, my," said Alejandro as he took a seat at the circular table she was at. "I must say, I've been entranced from what I've seen; like an elegant rose... Tell me, do you have thorns?"

"I'm not here to mingle with the other contestants," she said, her eyes facing directly ahead of her.

Alejandro moved his chair so that he was sitting across from her, but she merely looked elsewhere. "But you are so beautiful... Surely there must be a man waiting back home for you...?"

"Isn't there a woman waiting for you?"

"Ah, I assume you mean Heather. As much as it pains me to say, we have gone our separate ways. And now, I come across you... A beautiful rose with a head of black." His advances were met with silence, but he shrugged and smiled regardless. "You may not want to speak to me now, but I will learn more about you over time, my dear..."

Krystal merely rolled her eyes and said nothing.

"Oh, hey!" said Tyler as he approached the two. "I didn't know you would be here, Al!"

Through gritted teeth, Alejandro said, "It isn't Al..."

"And who's this?" Tyler motioned to Krystal, but Alejandro shrugged.

"She has not said her name, but I suppose we will find out once the competition begins."

"Oh, so you're a new cast member!" Tyler sounded excited as he held out his hand for her to shake, but Krystal ignored both of them as she took out her phone and began checking her mail. "Well, alright then! See you both on the plane!" He jogged off to the waiting area, leaving the two alone again.

**Jasmine/Shawn**

"Jasmine..." she heard faintly, her eyes closed with her tall body uncomfortably sprawled out on the chair she had been sleeping on. "Jasmine..." It became louder, and she groaned weakly to make it stop. "Jasmine!"

"Huh!?" She sprung upright, her shoulder snapping the food tray off of the seat in front of her as she checked to see where she was. To her left was a window showing the paved ground that the airplane had pulled into, and to her right was Shawn, who was laughing at her shock. "Shawn!?"

"Good to see you too," he said, taking a seat beside her. "I take it this plane just flew in from Australia?"

"Uh..." She fixed herself up a bit by straightening out her hair and finding a comfortable sitting position. "Yeah. Are we here?"

"Nope. The rest of us have been waiting on this flight. Apparently nobody knows where we're headed."

"Oh." Jasmine placed her had back on her head and smiled at Shawn. "Well, I'm glad you're going to be in it. I, uhh... I've missed you."

"About that..." Shawn took on a more bashful expression before continuing. "I'm real sorry for not coming to visit more often. I swear I'll make a change after this season! If I have to, I'll even move to Australia!"

"You don't have to do that for me," Jasmine said with a laugh. "I could always move to Canada, after all."

"No way! You've got your, uh... cage-fighting, flower shop thing going on. I don't wanna take that away from you. And, just out of curiosity... How's that doing?"

Jasmine's face lit up with delight at the question. "Oh, it's been doing great! It turns out there are lots of cage-fighters who are totally into gardening! Who knew!"

"Heh, yeah," Shawn said incredulously.

**Izzy**

"Go, go, go!" yelled Chef as he, Bridgette, and DJ ran through the crowded terminal in a rush to catch their flight. An explosion of mustard nearby caught them by surprise as Duncan stood in front of the scene, laughing hysterically before Chef grabbed him by the collar. "No soldier gets left behind, you hear!?"

On his way, Chef saw the orange head of Izzy waving at them with a wide smile as he picked her up and carried her with him.

"Where are we going!?" Izzy said, still smiling weirdly.

"Do I really need to babysit all of you like this!?" Chef said in frustration. "You'd all be late if it wasn't for me!"

"Late?" Izzy laughed. "I'm not even in this season! I just like watching planes take off!"

"Yeah, well, you are now!"

"Neat!"

The melodic voice of Ella rang out over the crowd as she sang about flying, but was quickly silenced by the oncoming stampede of competitors pushing her and Cody aside. "Hi guys!" Izzy shouted from the shoulder of Chef.

"Come on, Ella," Cody said, grasping onto Ella's wrist. "We have to hurry!"

"Oh, my!" she said, suddenly flustered and blushing. "As you say, my prince..."

"What?" Cody said in confusion. "Oh, whatever, just hurry up!"


	2. Part 2: Turbulence

**Part 2: Turbulence**

As Cody and Ella boarded the plane, tired and out of breath, they saw sixteen other contestants seated in various places as the engines were beginning to roar.

"Wow," Cody exclaimed with a smile. "We're actually in a real commercial airline! I thought Chris would be too cheap for something like this!"

"_Ahem_," he heard the torturer's voice itself speak up behind him from the pilot's cabin. Chris wore a displeased look on his face from the insult as he glared at Cody.

"Oh! Hehe," Cody uttered nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Hey... Chris..."

Chef handed Chris a microphone with a cord running back to the pilot's seat. "Attention campers!" he stated clearly as all chatting from the rest of the contestants came to a halt. "This is your host, as always, Chris McLean!"

"Boo!" Heather shouted from afar.

"Get off the stage!" Duncan followed up.

Chris stared blankly for a moment before continuing. "_As I was saying_, this season you'll be headed north! I don't wanna spoil it," he said with a sadistic laugh, "but I will say that I hope you packed for cold weather. _You'll be needing it_."

"So it won't be an island this time?" Shawn asked.

Chris answered while giggling, "Oh, it'll be an island... Buckle up, campers, and prepare for lift-off!" He shut the door to the pilot's cabin and left the rest to themselves.

"Oh, this is so exciting!" Ella said cheerfully as she assumed a dancing position. "_Come fly with us~_"

"AND NO SINGING!" they heard Chris's voice screaming over the intercom, putting a slight damper on Ella's mood as she took her seat.

While walking down the aisle to find suitable seating, Cody winked at Gwen as he passed by, making her roll her eyes, but smile nonetheless. Then, his eyes found their way to the girl sitting behind her, Krystal. His jaw dropped immediately as he stared wide-eyed, feeling little pink hearts swarming around his head.

Alejandro intervened and placed his arm around Cody's shoulder, guiding him further down the aisle, saying, "It's great to see you again, Cody! I believe the last time we met was the finale of World Tour, was it not?"

"Yeah..." said Cody weakly, his eyes still trying to locate Krystal behind them.

While Cody was distracted, Alejandro shot a sly grin at Heather as he passed by, receiving a cold glare in return. He then placed a hand over his heart to indicate how hurt he was by her body language, but she ignored his ruthless teasing. With just another step, Alejandro heard a crashing sound as soon as his foot touched the carpeted floor, making his eyes go wide with surprise as he looked down to see that he was perfectly fine.

"Nice sound effects, man," Trent whispered to Beardo, holding back his laughter as he watched Alejandro trying to compose himself again like nothing had happened. "I bet you can beatbox like a pro."

Beardo nodded, making creaking noises with each movement to make it sound as though he was a machine.

"Would you mind keeping it down over there?" said Heather from across the aisle, keeping two seats to herself since there were only 18 of them occupying an entire commercial airline. "If I lose sleep on this flight and have to spend my first day of the new season looking like crap, then guess who's getting eliminated first... Oh wait, I'm sure you know all about that, _Weirdo_."

"Still just as rotten as ever," Trent said with contempt in his voice.

"Heather isn't rotten," said Dakota, taking a seat beside her. "She's just misunderstood. Isn't that right?"

"You're a _competitor_?" Heather asked in disbelief.

"Hahaha!" Dakota simply laughed it off. "Come on, I know you've heard of me. I was only the biggest thing to happen to Revenge of the Island!"

Lightning jogged down the aisle past them, shouting, "In more ways than one! Sha-bam!"

"Listen," Heather said clearly. "For the second time, I have no idea who you're supposed to be. I'm not your _buddy_, I'm not some kind of mentor, and I'm definitely not going to be keeping you around this season if you keep bugging me."

Dakota gave Heather a long, sad stare before saying, "You... really don't know who I am?"

"Did I stutter?" Heather said cruelly as Dakota stood up and slowly walked towards the seats in the very back. "What a drama queen," Heather mumbled to herself.

As Dakota reached the very back row of seats, she was surprised to come across two of the holding hands as they stared longingly at one another. "Uhh..." she stammered as Bridgette jumped, looking terrified.

"You didn't see anything!" she said in a panic.

"Wow, Bridgette," said Dakota, impressed. "I know you got duped by Alejandro, but I wouldn't have expected you to fall for DJ as well. I can't wait to see what Geoff thinks about this!"

"NO!" Bridgette yelled. "You can't tell him about this!" She held her head in her hands, groaning into them.

"It's okay, Bridge," DJ said to console her, placing a hand on her back. "You've got someone back home. We don't have to keep going with this."

Dakota rolled her eyes. "That's boring. You and Geoff are _so_ lame together. DJ totally makes sense for you."

"You're not helping..." Bridgette moaned with her face still buried in her hands.

"Okaaay, but it's true..." She took a seat across the aisle and set down her handbag, taking out her phone to occupy herself with.

Another message came through the intercom as they heard Chris's voice saying, "Turn _off_ your phones during takeoff and landing."

"Do you have cameras all around this thing!?" Dakota yelled as she regretfully put away her phone.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

"Hey! Chris!" shouted Tyler from further up the aisle. "When are we gonna get going?" He lost his balance and fell forward as the plane started backing up at a fast pace as it prepared itself for the runway.

"Does that answer your question?" Chris said back, undoubtedly smiling from inside the pilot's cabin.

"So where do you think we're headed?" Duncan asked Zoey as he rested his feet on the back of the empty chair in front of him. "I'd like to think it's some kind of battle arena where we fight to the death, but your guess is as good as mine."

"Well..." Zoey said, taking a second to think as she watched the runway go by faster and faster from the window to their left. "Chris said it was up north and cold, so maybe the Yukon?"

"Or Antarctica," Duncan added. "I doubt half of these people would last a day up there. I heard it's so cold sometimes that when you spit, the saliva freezes to your mouth before it ever leaves."

Zoey giggled. "I'm pretty sure that wouldn't happen."

"Hey, you never know. The world is a weird place sometimes." Their eyes met finally as Duncan grinned. "Anything can happen."

"Uhh..." Zoey said uncomfortably, "I-I think I need to go to the bathroom." She quickly stood up out of her seat and immediately heard Chris's voice from the intercom.

"_Remain seated during takeoff_," he said.

Zoey sat back down and stared ahead as her eyebrows showed concern. She felt as though she should have known it would come to this, with Duncan being as friendly as he had been with her. Or maybe she was looking too deeply into this? "Duncan..." she said softly. "You know I'm faithful to Mike, right?"

"Whao, whao, whao there, Red," Duncan said with a dastardly grin. "I've got enough problems with the girls I've hit on already. The last thing I need is another chick to add more drama."

"Oh..." Zoey said, somewhat embarrassed, but relieved nonetheless. "Good. I do consider you a good friend, though."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," said Duncan, yawning as he drifted further down into his seat. "Friendship sure is great and all, but I'm gonna get some sleep."

"You don't wanna watch the takeoff?" Zoey asked, watching intently as they picked up more and more speed.

"I've seen enough of them. Go enjoy it with Izzy or something."

"Yeah!" Izzy exclaimed, popping out from the luggage cupboard above their seats. "I love this part!"

Exhaling with her eyes wide in shock, Zoey said, "You scared me half to death, Izzy!"

Izzy merely laughed and said, "Yeah, I get that a lot."

At the moment the wheels lifted from the Earth beneath them, Gwen gazed out at the late afternoon horizon growing as they began rising above the trees in the distance. She could feel the anxiety once again rising as she anticipated her fifth arrival on the set of Total Drama. Why did she insist on coming back every time? What was so enticing about it?

Once they were far enough into the sky, she leaned her head back and relaxed into her seat. Without knowing how long the flight would be, she opened up her bag that she had placed on the empty seat next to her and took out a zombie-related comic book.

"Mutant Zombie Wasteland?" said a voice over the back of her seat. She looked behind her and saw Shawn's face looking down at the comic book she held in her hands. "That's pretty old school. Pretty unrealistic, as well."

"Uhh..." Gwen said, staring blankly.

"Oh, sorry, my name's Shawn. It's nice to meet an original cast member."

"Oh, I remember you," she said with a bit of a smile. "I watched all of Pahkitew Island. Are you and Jasmine still going strong?"

"You could say that," said Jasmine, popping out from behind the next seat over. "Though, it is a bit difficult living so far away."

"We're working on it," Shawn said in conclusion. "Hey, we should make an alliance! You're already into zombies!"

Sighing, Jasmine said, "Shawn, we don't even know what teams we'll be on. How do we know we can trust her?" She looked over to Gwen and added, "No offense, of course."

"But she's the very first winner of Total Drama!" Shawn argued. "She's practically the queen of this show!"

Over their minor bickering, they could hear Gwen giggling. "Sorry," she said as she finished up laughing, "but Jasmine's right. It's a little too early to be making alliances with strangers."

"See?" Jasmine nudged Shawn with her elbow, accidentally pushing him over. "Are you alright, Shawn?" She helped pick him back up and, as she did, she noticed a pickaxe lying underneath Gwen's seat. "What's this for?"

Chris's voice rang yet again, saying, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Are we gonna be busting up rocks?" Shawn asked as he examined it. "I think we should keep this to ourselves. It's not the greatest tool for killing zombies, but I bet I could shape it into more of a weapon somehow."

"Finders keepers, I guess," Gwen said fairly. "Hope it helps in the first challenge. You two seem alright."

"Thanks, Gwen," Jasmine replied. "I hope we get along nicely, yeah?"

"Definitely." The two of them smiled while somewhere towards the back of the aisle they could hear Izzy shouting.

"JACKPOT!" she exclaimed, holding a jackhammer over her head for everyone to see.

"Where did you find that!?" asked Tyler.

"Izzy doesn't kiss and tell!" she replied, a sinister look on her face.

"What..." Tyler hesitated to say another word. "What?"

"_Great_," Heather grunted. "Of course we couldn't just have a relaxing trip. Chris had to include some sort of stupid bonus challenge before we even get there!"

"Thaaaat's right!" they heard Chris's voice say. "Don't worry, though- It's completely optional. You can all go ahead and get your beauty sleep in if you're not interested."

"Good." Heather fluffed a pillow and lied down on her two seats, but opened her eyes when she heard her phone receiving a text. She reached for her bag below her and checked to see who it was, immediately grimacing when it read _Alejandro_. Before reading it, she pursed her lips and decided against it, placing her phone back into her bag after shutting it off. She had given Alejandro a chance, and he wouldn't be getting any more. There was no unfaithfulness, no lying, cheating, or even back stabbing involved in their relationship. It was purely not meant to be, and she only wished that she had seen it sooner rather than deluding herself as she had been.

It was several hours later when she woke up, and it was pitch black outside her window. The lights had been dimmed and the only noise that could be heard was the roaring of the engines. Across from her, Trent and Beardo were fast asleep in their seats, which made her wonder; what had awoken her?

"Attention campers," said a mildly nervous Chris over the speakers as some of the other contestants began to wake up. "I have good news and bad news." Before he could continue, the plane shook violently, tossing some of them out of their seats.

"Chris!?" yelled a panicking Tyler. "What's going on!?"

"Yeah, about that..." Chris hesitated as the plane shook again.

"It's just some turbulence," said Duncan. "Don't get your panties in a knot.

"Yyeeaahh..." said Chris. "This _might_ not be your average turbulence, and we _might_ be in the middle of an unexpected hurricane."

"WHAT!?" several of them shouted in unison.

"I would probably buckle up," Chris advised slowly.

A flash of light lit up the inside of the plane as the crack of thunder rumbled through the cabins.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Cody squealed, holding onto both arms of his seat for dear life.

"Hold me, my prince!" said Ella, sitting beside him with her hands wrapped around his arm.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Cody replied.

Looking into DJ's eyes fearfully, Bridgette confessed, "If we all die here, I just want you to know that I've enjoyed your company more than anyone else's! I know I'm with Geoff, but I really like you and I think we would have been great together, just like Dakota said!"

Giving her a smile, DJ responded, "I feel the same way! You're really cool and great with animals! I've always liked you!" The two quickly locked lips over the chaos ensuing in the rest of the plane with contestants screaming and panicking.

"I ALWAYS KNEW IT WOULD BE A PLANE CRASH!" Tyler cried.

"Jasmine!" said Shawn. "You have to survive! Don't be afraid to eat the rest of our bodies when you're the last one left and all of the rations have been depleted!"

"I'm too young and famous!" Dakota shrieked.

"_Wheeeee_!" uttered Izzy with her hands straight up in the air.

Just when it looked like a doomed scenario, the plane corrected itself and all of the turbulence, thunder and panicking quickly disappeared. Bewildered by the sudden turn of events, everyone had been frozen in their last moment of panic for a couple of seconds before they heard from Chris again.

"So, uh," he said. "False alarm. Whoops!"

Crossing his arms, Duncan said, "See? I knew it."

Bridgette and DJ opened their eyes, their lips still together, and quickly went back to sitting quietly.

All the way in the back behind everyone's seats, a toilet could be heard flushing as Zoey walked casually out of the bathroom, turning to see everyone staring at her as she stood like a deer caught in headlights. "Uhh... Did I miss something?"

"Look at that!" said Lightning, gazing out of his window. "We're there!"

Everyone hurried to their windows to see pearly white, snow-covered terrain beneath them as the plane went in to land. Off in the distance was a dense woodland area surrounding a few robust mountains near the center of the island. Beside the flat edge of the tallest mountain were a few small cabins that they would no doubt be expected to sleep in after the teams were sorted. All of the tension that had been built up by the threat of crashing was alleviated as soon as they touched the landing strip, gradually coming to a halt just as the first few rays of morning sunlight appeared through the clouds.

Coming out from the pilot's cabin, Chris addressed the contestants personally at the front of the passenger's cabin. "And so, we find ourselves on an arctic island to the far north! Eighteen competitors from all walks of life battle it out yet again for the elusive million dollars! Only one competitor will remain victorious at the end of the season! Which one of you will rise to the challenge and overcome our most brutal and torturous contest yet? I hope you all brought your heaviest coats, because this is Total! Drama! Aaaaarctic Tundra!"

"Wait a minute," said Cody as Chris's hands were risen to the air for dramatic effect. "Shouldn't it be Total Drama Arctic_ Island_? I mean, we're on an island, aren't we?"

Chris's brows furrowed as he replied, "You know, you're starting to become my least favorite camper. Besides, it's already in print- _Total Drama Arctic Tundra_."

Cody shrugged. "I like my idea better."

After a long sigh, Chris yelled, "CUT!"

**A/N: The real competition begins here. I wanted an introductory chapter (or two in this case) because I always felt like TDWT got it best with the hour-long special leading up to that season, and to a lesser extent the one that TDA had. This isn't exactly like those, but I think I would have done something like this regardless because I love seeing the competitors both in and outside of Total Drama. I'm still brand new to writing fanfics, so let me know what you think so far!**


	3. Part 3: Walking in a Winter Wasteland

**Part 3: Walking in a Winter Wasteland**

"Keep it moving, people!" Chris said as the contestants filed out of the plane one by one, shivering once they were exposed to the harsh cold on their skin. He himself was wearing his white hooded coat with gray fur lining the inside and a pair of goggles over his eyes. It was still mostly dark out, but it was slowly becoming more light out with every passing minute. Once nearly everyone was out onto the snowy runway, Chris said, "I can't help but feel like someone isn't here..."

Finally, Krystal appeared at the stairs leading out of the airline, dressed in a comfortable and stylish violet coat that she hadn't been wearing until just then.

"Nice planning, Krystal," said Chris. "As for the rest of you, you'll need to get your coats from the cabins. _They're not comfortable_." He snorted as he laughed. "But before that, we need to get all of you into teams. Follow me!"

As they formed a crowd behind Chris following his footsteps to where the cabins were located, Alejandro took the time to confront Krystal, his one eyebrow raised in a show of interest.

"So it's Krystal..." he said as she didn't bother paying him any attention. "I should have known. Your beauty is radiant and fragile, not unlike that of a flower. But unlike a flower, you are not to be stepped on... but rather _shattered_..."

Krystal's eyes went wide as she came to a halt, watching Alejandro go on ahead of her with a satisfied grin on his face. The others continued moving around her until she felt Heather's hand on her shoulder, pushing her along.

"Don't let him get to you," she said. "That's how he is; if he can't seduce you, then he'll just try and intimidate you instead... And he's ruthless."

"I can see why you're not with him anymore," Krystal responded, her eyelids sinking back into their usual nonchalant places.

"Oh, please," said Heather. "As if I'm not just as bad at times."

"Then why are you trying to help me?"

Heather glared ahead of them at the back of Alejandro's head. "Because if anything gives Alejandro his sick, twisted pleasure, I want to put an end to it. I can't stand that smug look when he gets his way..."

"I guess that's reason enough," Krystal murmured.

"Let's hope we don't get him on either of our teams. For now, I think we should make an alliance just between the two of us. At least until Alejandro is out of the game."

"Deal," said Krystal right away.

When the group arrived at camp, they noticed an old, bearded man standing beside Chris and Chef at less than half their size. "So you're probably wondering how you'll be separated into teams this time around," said Chris. "Here I have with me the _mystic _of this island. He's agreed to read your auras to see whether you're a Fearless Penguin, or a Deadly Seal!"

"You can't be serious," Duncan objected. "We're gonna let this old man decide whose team we're on? Is he even awake?"

The elderly man's eyes opened as he said, "Oh, I'm awake. Now come forward, one by one. It won't take but a second."

"Let's just get this over with," Duncan complained.

First up was Lightning, standing proudly at the front of the line as the old man closed his eyes and hummed a bit. "Fearless Penguin," he said at last.

"Sha-bam!" Lightning shouted with a fist in the air. "Fearless it right!"

After him was Shawn, standing awkwardly in front of Jasmine as he waited for a reading. "Deadly Seal!" the old man exclaimed out of nowhere as Shawn stood separate from Lightning, who gave him a pompous grin.

"Fearless Penguin!"

"Oh, no..." Jasmine said as he joined Lightning who was cheering her on. She exchanged worried looks with Shawn as they stood a few feet apart, though it felt like miles.

"Deadly Seal!"

Trent stood beside Shawn, giving him a meager smile to try and cheer him up.

"Deadly Seal!"

Cody hurried to Shawn's side, going for a high five. "Woohoo, Deadly Seals!" Shawn didn't notice his hand there, but Trent took up the offer in his place as he and Cody shared a moment of comraderie.

"Fearless Penguin!"

Zoey went to join the others, keeping a wary eye on Lightning as she did.

"Deadly Seal!"

"_Whatever_," said Heather as she went to stand next to Cody, crossing her arms both for warmth and her usual contempt.

Sighing, Gwen broke out of the line and joined up with her, seeming unhappy about it.

"Uhh, Gwen?" said Chris, pointing a finger at her. "You kinda need to be read first. _That's the point of this_."

Gwen simply replied, "I've never been on the opposite team as Heather before, so I don't see why it would change now."

"Actually..." the mystic said. "You seem like more of a Fearless Penguin to me..."

"Too late!" Chris said with a smile. "This is _way_ better."

Heather sent a glare at Gwen, taunting her. "_Way to go, Gwen_..."

"As if I would have known this would be the _one time_," Gwen said back, knowing she messed up this time.

"Deadly Seal!"

Krystal made her way to the seals, taking a swift glance at Heather who nodded covertly at her. Despite watching her behavior over the four seasons she had appeared on and knowing how volatile and mean she was, it didn't bother Krystal. Alejandro, on the other hand...

"Fearless Penguin!"

Both Heather and Krystal exhaled in relief at hearing this as Alejandro made his way toward the rest of his team.

"Deadly Seal!"

"Oh, wonderful!" Ella said with joy as she pranced towards Cody, who was too busy staring at Gwen and Krystal to notice her.

"Mutant Bass!" shouted Izzy, her eyes wobbling around as she stared at the elderly man. "Confused Gopher!"

"That's not how this works, Izzy!" Chris scolded her, but she paid no attention to him.

"Fearless Penguin!" the mystic exclaimed.

"Okay, but I like my names better," said Izzy as she joined the rest of her team.

"Deadly Seal!"

Beardo ignored Heather's audible groan as he went to join them.

"_Two_ Fearless Penguins!"

DJ and Bridgette both looked at one another, as they were the only two the mystic could have been referring to. They received a few snide remarks from either team as they bashfully walked to their team, giving each other nervous glances once they were stood still.

"Fearless Penguin!"

"Alright!" Tyler exclaimed. "The team of athletes!"

The only two that were left without a team were Dakota and Duncan, meaning whichever team Dakota was placed on, Duncan would automatically be placed on the other to give both sides 9 members.

"Deadly Seal!"

Dakota made her way to the Seals as Duncan went the Penguins, satisfied with the outcome.

"And so the teams have been decided!" Chris said at last, standing in front of the two separate crowds. "On the Deadly Seals, we have: Shawn, Heather, Gwen, Beardo, Cody, Dakota, Krystal, Ella, and Trent!"

He then turned to face the Penguins. "And on the Fearless Penguins, we have: Lightning, Duncan, Jasmine, Zoey, Izzy, Alejandro, Tyler, Bridgette, and DJ!"

***Confessional***

"All the strongest players on one team?" said a confident Lightning inside the outhouse confessional. "This is gonna be easy!"

***End Confessional***

"This is gonna suck," said Gwen, looking at the other team. "No offense, you guys, but I think we're a bit outclassed in the fitness department."

"Then we just have to outsmart them!" Cody suggested. "Besides, we're not _that_ much weaker, are we?" The majority of his team was giving him an odd look as he backed down and said, "Okay, maybe..."

"I nominate myself as leader," said Heather, surprising nobody. After a few moments of silence, she looked shocked that nobody was objecting. "Really? That worked?"

Gwen shrugged. "There's no point in arguing. It's not like we have someone better for the job."

"Uh, yeah..." Shawn said. "I'd nominate myself, but I don't really want to get too attached to any of you. It's just not worth the emotional turmoil. Unless it's Jasmine..."

"I'm sure you'll be an outstanding leader, Heather," Ella said cheerfully. "I can already tell we're going to get along just fine!"

Heather raised an eyebrow at Ella's assumption, then said with a devious smile, "Oh, we'll be the _best_ of friends."

"Watch yourself around this one," Gwen warned Ella. "She's dangerous."

"Dangerous, am I?" Heather scoffed. "Says the _goth_ who stole someone's boyfriend."

Gwen's hands tightened into fists at her sides as she said, "_He was not her_... You know what? Forget about it. I don't even care anymore." As she faced away from the rest of the team with her arms crossed, she felt a heavy burlap coat land on top of her from behind. She turned around to see Trent handing them out to the rest of the team, giving her a welcoming smile as he did. While it was a little rough on the skin and only came in the most boring shade of brown, it was at least warm.

"Is everyone nice and warm?" Chris asked after they had all put on their coats. "Because without further ado, your very first challenge of the season is about to take place! Chef! Unveil the ice!"

Chef Hatchet trudged through the snow towards two large mounds in the snow covered in sheets. When the sheets were pulled back, they were introduced to two thick, jagged hunks of ice embedded into the ground beneath.

"Within both of these chunks of ice," Chris began explaining, "is an idol trapped in the center. You'll need to use whatever you can to break through the ice and retrieve the idol for your team. Once you have the idol, your goal will be to place it on top of its shrine deep within _those_ woods." He pointed to a cluster of snow-covered, mostly dead trees off in the distance, facing opposite of the cabins. "The first team to place their idol on the shrine wins the challenge, and the losing team will be sending someone home. But I wouldn't feel too bad about being the first one gone." Chris giggled to himself. "Eventually, you'll all be wishing it was you."

The teams stared at Chris in shock, only making him happier as a result.

"It's a good thing I got this jackhammer!" Izzy said, balancing on it while she waited.

"Hey!" Heather protested. "I thought you said that was all optional!"

"It was!" said Chris. "You didn't _have_ to find something to help you in this challenge."

"Did you keep that pickaxe, Shawn?" asked Gwen.

"Right here," he said, taking it out from under his shirt. "But it was really Jasmine who found it..."

"And she's on the other team," Heather said with a strict look on her face. "Would you _really_ want to give your enemy the advantage and let your team down?"

Shawn took one last gaze at Jasmine, then said, "No..."

***Confessional***

"I _really_ don't wanna cross my team," said Shawn, "but it feels so wrong competing against Jasmine when I spent almost all of last season trying to make up for my stupid mistakes. I hope she can understand."

***End Confessional***

Izzy held on as best as she could to the handle of the jackhammer while it pummeled its way through the sturdy ice.

"Keep it up, Izzy!" Zoey cheered her on.

On the other side of it, Duncan was doing his best to chop through it with an axe in both hands.

"I didn't know you found an axe!" Tyler said as he watched little bits of ice spraying out with every swing.

"Right..." Duncan said with a grin, "_found_..."

"Sha-bam!" Lightning yelled as he punched the ice with his bare hand, barely leaving a dent as he grunted in pain with his throbbing hand tucked under his other arm.

"Who's the fastest runner here?" Zoey asked the team. "Once we get this idol, we still have to make it there faster than the other team."

"I can probably run the fastest," Tyler boasted. "I have a good track record of, uh... track."

"I have seen you 'be an athlete,' Tyler," said Alejandro, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You would not be the wisest choice. Myself, on the other hand..."

"Hah!" Lightning laughed. "Nobody can outrun Lightning! Give that idol to me, and we'll be resting easy tonight!"

"Not to step on any toes here," said Jasmine, "but I was definitely the fastest of the other competitors in Pahkitew Island. Well, maybe except for Sky..."

"And you're also the _only_ one here from that lame season," Lightning responded.

"_Lame!?_" Jasmine said angrily.

"Whoa! Guys, chill out!" said Bridgette, placing herself between the two. "I say we let DJ carry it. He's usually not given the chance, but he can run faster than anyone I know."

"Sha-please!" Lightning said. "Like I said before, _nobody_ outruns Lightning."

"Okay, well..." Bridgette thought for a moment. "Would you really wanna let the enemy team know that in the first challenge? We should keep your skills hidden until we absolutely need them."

Lightning took a second to ponder on it, then said, "Fine. But if this loses us the challenge, it's gonna be you going home!"

"Fine," Bridgette agreed.

DJ got close to Bridgette and began whispering in her ear. "I don't do well under this kind of pressure! And I don't want to be responsible for you going home on the first day!"

"Don't worry, DJ," Bridgette smiled. "You'll do fine. I believe in you." They both gazed into each other's eyes before they heard cheers from the other team as they reached the idol with a combination of a pickaxe and shovel.

"We need to hurry, guys!" yelled Tyler.

"Almost there..." said Izzy as both she and Duncan were near the very center, the brown idol in plain sight. With just a little more force than necessary, Duncan's axe barely chipped the idol with his last swing before it fell out with ease.

"Quick, take it DJ!" said Jasmine after she reached in and pulled it out from its crevice.

DJ held on to the idol and broke out into a sprint across the field of snow towards the woods. Ahead of him was Shawn, who had taken the place as runner for his team. He focused only on running, trying to block out the pressure that weighed down on his shoulders from the people who were relying on him, especially Bridgette.

When they entered the woods, the shade of the trees immediately made it significantly darker as they glanced at each other from afar. He had caught up to Shawn, but he still needed to find the shrine first. The winds were causing eerie noises to the lifeless branches up above, creaking and howling in the frigid, wintry air.

Upon catching a glimpse of the old stone shrine with a single ray of light shining down on it, DJ hurried, pulling ahead of Shawn and firmly placing the idol atop the flat surface of the shrine. He had a smile on his face when he realized he had won it for his team, and turned around to Shawn to give his condolences.

"Sorry, man," he said.

"You're pretty fast," Shawn admitted, sitting down to catch his breath. "Heather's gonna kill me."

From the shrine came a low, ominous wail as they both turned to look at it. The strange noise only got louder and it wasn't long before the two decided to get out A.S.A.P.

***Confessional***

"I knew this place was bad," said Shawn with his legs tucked in, nervously looking from side to side. "I'd get out now, but I may end up being humanity's only hope if I can cut off the spread of the zombie apocalypse where it starts."

***End Confessional***

DJ was held up by the rest of the team, who were cheering for his victory. Meanwhile, Shawn came back with his head held low while Heather had a fit.

"The Fearless Penguins have won their first challenge!" Chris announced. "Which means I'll be seeing the Deadly Seals tonight at elimination! And of course, my favorite part, showing off the season's new elimination _method!_"

"That was our one chance at an early lead!" she was saying. "Not only are we the weaker team, but now we're going to be down by one!"

"I'm sure we'll figure something out," said Ella. "We at least came close!"

Heather's grimace turned into a half smile as she said, "You're right, Ella. We should look at the positives."

***Confessional***

"Ella's a sap, for sure," said Heather, "but a sap that I can use to my advantage. All I have to do is survive the team phase and it'll become easier from then on. Maybe I should try to get back in Dakota's favor."

***End Confessional***

That night, when the competitors were exhausted from their busy day, the Deadly Seals had lined up on the shore where nine stones had been placed for each of them to sit on. Chris stood on the podium facing them all, with marshmallows set up on a plate.

"You all know the drill by now, I'm sure," said Chris with his usual evil grin. "Krystal! Since you're new, would you like an explanation of how this goes down?"

"I'm good," she said.

"Good! Because I wasn't going to give you one anyway! The campers who are staying tonight are: Trent, Beardo, Ella, Heather, Shawn, Dakota, and Gwen, which leaves one more spot open to stay on the island." He looked at Cody, who had yet to get a marshmallow. "Cody, you're potentially one of the weakest members here and it's looking pretty tough for your team._ And_ I don't like you."

Ella intervened, "Cody isn't weak! He has a very strong determination. Isn't that right?"

"Uh..." Cody stammered. "Sure?"

"And Krystal!" Chris continued. "You're unknown to the team. Nobody knows if they can trust you since you've mostly been keeping to yourself. One of you seem to be more important for your team, and that person is..." He let the dramatic tension build as Cody shook fearfully and Krystal remained bored and uninterested. "Krystal!"

"Aw, no!" Cody exclaimed in disappointment. "First one voted off? That's just embarrassing..."

Ella wrapped her arms around Cody, saying, "I'll miss you, my sweet prince!"

"Okay, seriously!" Cody said in confusion as Ella took a step back. "What's with this whole prince thing? Why is it always the crazy girls?"

"I could feel it the moment we touched!" said Ella. "You were to be my prince, and I, your princess! It's such a magical feel-"

"Chris!" Cody shouted. "Get me out of here already!"

"Gladly!" said Chris as he brought the losing team closer to the shore, carrying a remote in his hand. When he pressed a button, a square in the ground opened up into an underground base as a rocket emerged onto the surface. "_This_ is your means of elimination this season! I call it the Rocket of Disgrace! Chef, would you mind securing the loser to his means of elimination?"

The rest of the team watched in surprise as Cody was tied firmly to the back of the rocket.

"This can't be safe!" Cody said nervously. "How does this even land!?"

"Oh, don't worry," said Chris. "It's state of the art technology. You'll land perfectly safe and sound. _Where _you'll land is anyone's guess!"

"Aw, come on!"

"So long, loser #1!" Chris said as he initiated the rocket. It blew smoke everywhere as it instantly took off into the night's sky with Cody's screaming fading by the second. "And that's been our first elimination ceremony!" Chris wrapped up the ending of the day in front of the Deadly Seals, who were standing there with blank, confused stares. "It was a short challenge today, but next time we're going to kick it up a few notches after the teams have settled into their new temporary home! Seventeen competitors remain, but only one will have the physical and mental fortitude to make it through this season of _Total! Drama! Aaaaaarctic Tundra!_"

**A/N: Sort of a longer chapter today, but I wanted to fit the teams being formed, drama between the competitors, and the first challenge all into one segment. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think so far!**


	4. Part 4: The White Tail of Surrender

**A/N: I**** wanted to pop in and clarify that Krystal is not representing myself. She's just a character I made up for the purpose of this story, and she won't end up becoming the main focus or anything like that. I originally wanted to add at least one more OC into the mix, but came to the conclusion that one was enough. With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy!**

**Part 4: The White Tail of Surrender**

Within the Deadly Seals' cabin, on the girls' side, Gwen awoke to the sound of joyous singing by Ella, prancing around already fully dressed in pink.

"Do you mind?" Gwen asked, picking her head up off of her pillow with messy hair and dark bags under her eyes. Their cabins were nearly identical to those used in the first season, except for the snow and ice lining the windows and the built-in heaters to prevent them freezing to death in their sleep. She had been resting on the bunk above Ella's, but was considering sleeping somewhere else if this is what she had to look forward to every morning. "I'm not what you would call a _morning person_."

"Oh, but morning is the most wonderful time of the day! The birds are singing, the sun is waking up to give us warmth and love, and the day begins anew!"_  
_

"Have you looked around lately?" asked Gwen. "No birds, no warmth, and definitely no love. This is an _arctic tundra _we're in, not some magical forest. Now let me get some sleep, okay?"

Ella frowned in dismay, heading out of the cabin for breakfast.

***Confessional***

"I do wish Cody was still here..." said a neglected Ella. "It doesn't seem fair that he was voted off so soon, but I suppose Gwen is right... This just isn't the place for love."

***End Confessional***

"And here I thought I was the mean one," said Heather from the top bunk across from hers. She was wearing a bulky white t-shirt and violet pajama bottoms as she hopped down from her bed, Krystal still asleep on the lower bunk. "She's right, you know. Morning is the most important part of the day. The early bird crushes the worm. Now if you don't mind, I'm off to hit the showers. That is, if the water isn't frozen along with everything else in this hellhole."

She left as well, leaving Gwen and Dakota alone while Krystal continued to lay silently in bed.

"What about you?" asked Gwen, turning her focus to Dakota who was on a bunk bed to herself. "You haven't said much since we got here."

"What _about_ me?" she responded. "If you're going to tell me how un-famous I am and how my entire life is a flash in the pan, then get it over with." She hung a blanket from the top bunk over hers and proceeded to change behind it.

"What are you talking about? I don't even know you."

Dakota's head peaked out from behind the blanket briefly as she said, "That's the problem!"

"Umm... Okay?" Gwen watched as Dakota took down the blanket and stormed out of the cabin in her usual clothes underneath the big burlap coat they had to wear. "What a drama queen..."

"This island is going to get to all of us eventually," said Krystal, her head turned towards the wall beside her bunk.

"What?" said Gwen with a raised eyebrow. "Can anyone here just make sense for once?"

"You said it yourself," Krystal went on. "There's no warmth here, or love. It's a cold, heartless, desolate place, and it's going to break us one by one."

Gwen was a little more than disturbed to hear this, but her concerned expression faded as she decided to get out of bed finally. "That's a little grim, even for me."

* * *

Inside the boy's side of the Fearless Penguins cabin, Lightning had set up a mirror beside his bunk and spent the early morning flexing in front of it while the others either got dressed or headed off to the shower.

"You have a very impressive form, Lightning," said Alejandro as he pulled his shirt on.

Lightning sent him a strange look into the mirror and said, "Are you trying to hit on me? Because Lightning doesn't swing that way! Sha-bam!"

"I'm only saying that it is good to have you on the team. You could prove to be an invaluable ally in the physical challenges, don't you think?"

"Think? I know! I could have ran that idol to its shrine in half the time it took DJ!"

"I don't doubt it," Alejandro agreed. "I wanted to ask; what do you think of a potential alliance? I may understand your strengths, but the rest of the team might not, and the sooner we have a plan, the better."

"Sha-nope!" Lightning exclaimed. "I work alone, and I've seen how sneaky you can be! No deal!"

***Confessional***

"Lightning isn't quite as stupid as I was hoping," said Alejandro. "If I can't get him on my side, then perhaps I need to change my sights to Jasmine and turn the charm on..."

***End Confessional***

* * *

Chris had been waiting for both teams to arrive outside of their cabins so that he could introduce the second challenge. The last one to make it there was Duncan, still chewing on a stale biscuit from the kitchen.

"Good morning, campers!" Chris said enthusiastically as none of them gave him even the slightest bit of excitement in return. "I know what you're all thinking; this island is completely uninhabitable. No life could be sustained here whatsoever. But you're wrong! There is _one_ animal that lives on this island, and his name is Tibb! Your challenge is to locate Tibb and bring him back to me by the end of the day. The first team to hand him to me wins the challenge! If neither team finds him by the end of the day, _both_ teams will be sending someone home tonight!" This grabbed their attention, making both teams anxious to be let loose so they could hurry up with the challenge. "Oh, and Ella," Chris added. "If any of my cameras catch you singing to try and lure him out, your team will immediately forfeit the challenge! You're lucky to even be here after what you put everyone through last season!"

Ella hung her head low, more saddened than she had ever appeared.

"Let the hunt begin!"

"Hunt?" said Bridgette. "We're bringing it back _alive_, right?"

"Yes, Bridgette," Chris said with a sigh. "If not, I suppose I won't be _too_ upset if I get its carcass instead. It wouldn't necessarily be breaking the rules. Thanks for clearing that up for everyone, Bridge!"

Bridgette groaned audibly as she went with the rest of her team in search of the mystery animal.

The Deadly Seals went the opposite way, with Gwen slowing down so she could be in the back of the line with Ella for a moment.

"Hey," she said mildly to the moping girl in pink. "Look, I'm really sorry for what I said earlier today. I can be grumpy at times, and I didn't mean it. You have every right to sing- while we're in our cabin, that is."

"Oh, that's not why I'm sad..." said Ella. "You're right about this place. It feels so... lonely... especially now that Cody isn't here."

"It doesn't have to be lonely," Gwen said with a smile. "You have me, and I'm sure the rest of the team is glad to have you here as well."

"Come on, you dweebs! Hurry up!" Heather called from the front of their pack.

"Well, _most_ of us are glad," Gwen added with a nervous grin.

Ella turned and smiled at Gwen, her hope rekindled by the show of generosity. "I'll remember that," she said. "Thank you, Gwen."

***Confessional***

Gwen was hunched over on the toilet of the outhouse, exhaling. "Sometimes... you forget that everyone is still human. I've known Ella for such a short period of time, and yet I already had her marked down as someone who couldn't be disheartened. I still don't know who voted for Cody, though. It certainly has nothing to do with being the _weakest_, since I'm pretty sure Dakota holds that title if I had to guess. It was probably Heather and whoever else she's dragged into her schemes."

***New Confessional***

"Believe it or not," Heather began, "it wasn't me who was responsible for that twerp's elimination. Krystal and I both voted for Shawn. I was actually hoping to keep Cody around for a while, maybe dangle him on the end of a string to get him voting with me, but whatever. If I were to guess who's responsible, and I _do_ have an educated guess, it would be Trent. I saw the way he smiled at Gwen before the first challenge. He wants to get good with her again, and this team is the perfect setup for that. Think about it; she's uncomfortable with almost everyone on this team and her ex is our enemy. All she needs is a little swooning and any unwanted competition to be out of the picture and they're as good as new again."

***End Confessional***

* * *

The Fearless Penguins had split up into two searching parties, and Jasmine had been placed in the one with Lightning, Izzy, Alejandro, and Bridgette, who agreed to be in a different search team than DJ so they could focus more on the challenge. They had been hugging the foothills of the mountains underneath the minimum cover of the dead trees for half an hour as they made their way around the island, keeping their eyes peeled for any slight movement.

"There he is!" Lightning exclaimed as he pounced on a snow-covered shrub only to come up empty-handed. "Coulda sworn that was it!"

"That's the fifth time you've said that," said Jasmine, walking past him with the rest of the group. "There are too many places it could be on this island. It'll take some kind of miracle to find a single animal."

"Maybe we could split up again," Alejandro suggested. "Bridgette, Lightning, and Izzy could go one way, and me and Jasmine could go another."

"I hunt best alone..." Izzy said in a suddenly dramatic way. The rest of them gave her strange looks before she dove behind a tree, disappearing from sight.

"I guess that simplifies it, then," said Alejandro. "Come, Jasmine."

"Hold on a moment," Bridgette interrupted.

"We're wasting valuable time by waiting, remember..." Alejandro said impatiently.

"_I'll_ go with Jasmine," she said to schemer's dismay. "Don't think I don't remember what happened in Would Tour, because it won't happen again."

***Confessional***

"Right..." said Alejandro resentfully. "I had almost forgotten about my short history with Bridgette. She would rather see _me_ brought back dead to Chris than the animal we're after. This isn't shaping out to be my season, it would seem..."

***End Confessional***

"What makes you think I would want to make a move on Jasmine?" Alejandro asked. "Besides, she's already taken."

Glaring as hard as she could, Bridgette responded, "_So was I_."

"Yes," he said with his famous, devious grin, "_and you still are_."

Bridgette broke her glare and pulled the confused Jasmine along with her, leaving Alejandro and Lightning alone. "That evil, manipulative, back-stabbing, lying..." she mumbled to herself.

"Is he really that bad?" Jasmine asked. "He is awfully handsome, I'll give him that much..."

Bridgette turned around, her hand still wrapped around Jasmine's wrist, and said, "Whatever you do on this island, _do not_ fall for Alejandro. It'll be your last mistake..."

Jasmine was a bit taken aback by this response, but she took it to heart regardless. She wasn't sure what to think of Bridgette so far, but it was hard to argue against such a passionate reaction from someone. It wasn't as though she was going to cheat on Shawn, regardless.

* * *

"Hey, Krystal?" said Heather as the two of them were trudging through the snow near the shore. Similarly to the Penguins, they had split up to cover more ground. "I was thinking, because I'm helping you out with Alejandro and all, that maybe... I could borrow your coat? That would just be great."

Krystal let out a single sigh, her breath forming a cloud in front of her from the intense cold.

***Confessional***

"I know that Heather's using me," said Krystal. "And she knows that I'm aware of that. So why are we still in an alliance? Well... Besides the fact that we both hate Alejandro, I have my own plans for later." She still had her usual half-interested expression as she said this. "Whether or not they'll pan out for me is another question entirely."

***End Confessional***

"You're so nice!" said Heather as she relaxed in her new comfortable purple coat while Krystal reluctantly wore Heather's rugged burlap one. "It is _so_ going to be you and me in the finale."

Just then, Krystal's eyes came across something rather interesting. It was far away, but she could see the tiny shape of a white and gray fox staring back at them. When she took a step forward, however, she made another interesting observation; they had come across a sizable patch of ice blocking their path.

"Is that a fox?" Heather asked as she squinted into the distance. "Oh my god, it _is_ a fox! There it is!" She slid forward a bit and had to balance herself out once she had made it onto the ice. "Oh, _of course_ this would happen... Come on, Krystal." She turned to her side to see Krystal still at the very beginning of the ice, having not moved an inch since. "Umm, hello? We have a fox to catch?"

"I'm, uhh..." Krystal said nervously. "I don't do so well on ice..."

With a disbelieving stare, Heather said, "You're kidding me, right? You live in Canada, your name is Krystal, and you can't keep your balance on a little bit of ice?"

Krystal's footing slipped out from underneath her as she fell on her backside, hoping that there weren't any cameras around to see it. "It's not like I haven't tried before!" she raised her voice for the first time since coming to Total Drama while Heather couldn't help but crack up at her misfortune. "Just go on without me and I'll go the long way around. Vote me off if we lose for all I care."

"As you say, _ice princess_." Heather inched her way forward until she was eventually on the other side of the strip of ice where she began stalking her prey. Each footstep forward was executed carefully as the arctic fox merely stared in her direction the entire time. "Alright, you little rodent-wannabe..." she whispered. "Don't make this any harder than it needs to be..."

She was frustrated to see it begin to move, and devastated when it broke into a sprint away from her. She growled and chased after it, no longer being gentle with her footsteps.

It was making its way into an area dense with trees as Alejandro and Lightning came at it from the other side with Zoey and DJ rounding out an enclosure around the little fox. Heather caught all of the eyes of the enemy team against her as they all acknowledged her except for Lightning. Through an impressive display of speed and agility, Lightning managed to trap the fox in his arms as his team cheered him on.

"Oh, yeah!" Lightning exclaimed, more impressed with himself than ever.

"Now we just need to get it to Chris!" said Zoey.

"No problem!" Lightning replied. "This little guy's in the Lightning prison, and nothing's escaped these arms!"

As Krystal arrived at the scene, wiping off her clothes of the snow and ice that had gotten on her after falling, she said to Heather, "I guess this is my fault." She took her coat off to shake it dry, wearing a tight black shirt underneath.

The moment Lightning laid eyes on Krystal, his jaw dropped and his brain went numb. "_Sha-dayum!_" His hold on the fox loosened as it scampered off away from him, but he couldn't hear the angered cries of his team.

"No," said Heather, "but _that_ was. Nice work!"

* * *

Cutting through the silence of the woods was the peculiar mooing of a cow as both Bridgette and Jasmine looked at one another in confusion.

"The animal we're looking for is a _cow?_" Bridgette said as they began moving in that direction.

As soon as they arrived at what sounded like the source of the noises, they both fell through the snow and into a pit.

"You _can't_ be serious!" Jasmine yelled. The pit was just barely wide enough for both of them to fit inside of, and even taller than Jasmine with her arms raised in the air. "_No, no, no_..." she muttered as she started breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" said Bridgette as she stood up, rubbing her head from the pain of the fall.

"Does it _look_ like I'm okay!?" Jasmine replied, her eyes wide with terror.

"Guess that's two less to worry about," said someone's voice from up above. "Who have we got here?" Shawn peaked over the edge of the pit as he saw Jasmine and Bridgette's angered eyes looking back at him. "Oh, crap..."

"_Shawn_!" shouted Jasmine out of rage. "Get me out of here _right now_!"

Shawn immediately lowered a shovel into the pit for her to grab onto and climb up. Once she was out, she took a deep breath and gazed around. "Where was that cow?"

Beardo then walked out from behind a tree and began mooing, making her groan in humiliation.

"Hey, what about me?" said Bridgette, still looking up at Shawn.

"Uhh, yeah..." Shawn said awkwardly. "You're not really my girlfriend..."

Jasmine smacked the back of his head and told him, "Get her out of there! Nobody deserved to be holed up in a tight space like that!"

As Shawn held his shovel into the pit for Bridgette, he said, "I would have come back for her..."

"We're not trying to capture the enemy team here, Shawn," Jasmine said to him. "We're here to... fox?"

"Excuse me?" said both Shawn and Bridgette as Jasmine's gaze was fixed on the arctic fox scurrying through the woods nearby.

She started running ahead of the others, keeping her eyes fixed on the white fox. From the trees, she could see a certain orange-haired maniac dropping from her perch to grab the fox in both arms. "Alright, Izzy!" said Jasmine. "Let's hurry back! It's getting late!"

"You're a cute little thing, aren't you?" Izzy said as she held the fox in front of her, running with Jasmine back to the cabins.

"Pay attention, Izzy. We can't afford to lose it now."

"Don't worry so much!" Izzy said as she turned to grin at Jasmine. "I've got everything under control." She turned to her front again and realized the fox was had vanished from her hands. "Wait, what?"

"Thanks! Bye!" said a triumphant Dakota as she ran off with the fox in her hands.

"I demand to know how you did that!" Izzy called after her.

Dakota wore a grin on her face as she continued running, although her grin wore off as she saw Jasmine closing the gap between them quickly. Her lips then turned into an outright frown when she remembered she had forgotten the way back to camp.

"Need some directions?" said Alejandro, showing up beside her. "I would do anything to help a lady as beautiful as yourself."

Dakota's eyes narrowed a bit. "Aren't you on the other team?"

Alejandro snatched the fox out of her hands and said, "Why yes! I am!" While he still lingered on the sour expression of Dakota that he left behind, he didn't notice the raging bull of a human being charge right into him, knocking the wind out of him.

As much as Heather would have loved to stare longer at Alejandro lying in the snow breathless, she had a challenge to win. She snatched the fox and started running alongside Dakota while Jasmine was still hot on their trail. All she needed to do was make it a little further and she would be in sight of Chris, but Jasmine was nearly about to catch up to them and wasn't slowing down anytime soon. With a heavy sigh, Heather decided to make the best choice she could in the given circumstances and handed Tibb over to Dakota. "You'd better make sure that gets to Chris!" she said.

"But what are you going to do?" Dakota asked before Heather turned around and lunged at Jasmine, knocking them both over as Dakota was then in the clear. Not a single member of either team was around at that point, and as she kept running, she could see the camp through the remaining trees before making it out into the clearing.

"Get off me!" Jasmine grunted as she pushed Heather aside, both getting to their feet to face each other. "Not bad," she said, covered in snow. "Didn't think you'd have the guts to come at me like that."

"_Puh-lease_," Heather scoffed. "If this show's taught me anything, it's that you should never go in outnumbered. Challenges, alliances, votes... You always have to be the boss or else you'll just get stomped on by everyone else. And that's why you lost last season."

"Oh yeah?" Jasmine said back. "I still had half of the million split with me, didn't I? That's half a million more than you got for winning."

Heather growled in frustration as they both heard Chris over the loudspeakers announcing that the Deadly Seals had won the challenge. "Hah!" she said with a grin. "Let's hope your team values its resident giant!"

***Confessional***

"I've heard bad things about that one," said Jasmine, "but I didn't think she would be so _rude_!" She sat and thought for a moment. "Then again, she may have had a point about being the boss..."

***End Confessional***

* * *

"Welcome back, teams!" said Chris after everyone had rejoined him back in front of the cabins, exhausted from the day of running around the island. He held Tibb in his arms as he spoke to them, the sun hidden behind the mountains. "As you all know, the Deadly Seals were the ones to retrieve Tibb, making them safe for tonight! You'd better have someone in mind to eliminate, Fearless Penguins, because voting time is on its way!"

"Don't we get something for winning the challenge one person short?" asked Heather. "I should at least get something for carrying my team to victory."

"Hmm..." Chris said with a smile on his face. "You're right. Here you go!" He handed the white fox to her as she looked at it in surprise. "Congratulations! You're now the proud owner of an arctic fox!"

"That's not funny, Chris!" she said in retaliation as some of her teammates giggled. "I am _not_ taking care of this mangy little furball!"

"She's right, Chris," said Gwen. "It's not fair for Tibb to have to take care of Heather."

"_Watch it_," Heather said with a glare.

"I've stopped caring," Chris said as he turned to the Penguins. "Meet me by the Rocket of Disgrace after you've decided on a new loser! Chop chop! Get to it!"

* * *

While the rest of the Seals were celebrating outside of the cabins after night had fallen, Gwen took the time to visit the boys' sleeping area, knowing Trent was alone there. "Hey... Trent? Can I come in?" she said outside the door.

"Gwen? Sure, of course."

Taking a deep breath, Gwen entered and closed the door behind her. "If you don't mind, I had something I wanted to ask you..."

"Yeah?" said Trent, sitting on the side of his bunk as he tuned his guitar. "What's that?"

She took a seat beside him, looking at the ground with concern on her face. "Did you vote for Cody?"

Trent didn't respond at first, his eyes focused on the strings of his guitar, but then said, "No way," in his usual chill, relaxed tone. "Me and Cody were cool. Why would I want him voted off?"

Gwen hesitated, feeling more awkward around him than she ever had before. And with their history, that was saying something. "Do you..." She stopped and started over again. "Do you still have feelings for me?"

Again, it took time for Trent to respond. His blank stare at his guitar left Gwen feeling worried, like there was something deeply rooted that he had yet to tell her about. "We've went over that," he said. "You're over me, and that's all there is to it."

"That doesn't answer my question," she said.

They could hear the door to the girls' side of the cabin open up with a slam as Heather's voice could be heard. "Eww, eww, eww, it's peeing!"

'Maybe you should go help her," Trent suggested as he got back to tuning his guitar.

Feeling even worse than she did coming in, Gwen stood up and slowly went to the door, taking one last look at Trent, who was still too occupied to look back at her.

* * *

"So!" Chris said in front of the audience of Penguins. "One of you is going home tonight! As for the rest of you..." He began picking up marshmallows and throwing them at those who were safe. "Izzy, Duncan, Alejandro, DJ, Zoey, Tyler, and Jasmine are all safe tonight! Which leaves Bridgette and Lightning!" The two of them seemed surprised with the results. "Bridgette, for someone who hates the idea of violence towards animals, you sure are hostile towards a certain someone on the team!"

Bridgette looked at Alejandro with a glare, feeling sick to her stomach knowing that she could go home that night because of him.

"And Lightning!" Chris continued. "You seemed more concerned with staring at a certain someone on the _other team_ than winning the challenge for your _own team_."

"I was blindsided!" Lightning said in his own defense. "Until today, I didn't even realize there was someone new here! That's all!"

"Riiiight," said Chris. "The final marshmallow goes to..." He looked at both of them for several seconds to build the frustrating tension. "Bridgette!"

"Sha-what!?" shouted Lightning. "You can't all be serious!"_  
_

"Bye-bye, Lightning!" said Chris as Chef came to drag him over to the new rocket of the day.

"You all know I'm the strongest member of this team! You just threw away your hopes of winning!"

Alejandro walked closer to the cannon after Lightning had been tied up, saying softly so none of the others could hear, "If only you had an alliance right now..."

"You're dead, Alejandro!" he said as the rocket began to shoot into the sky. "SHA-DEAD!"

"And so!" Chris said in front of the remaining Fearless Penguins. "The teams have evened out after the second challenge, and tensions are already running high! Who's going to crack under the pressure!? Who's going to be next to experience the ride of their lifetime on the Rocket of Disgrace!? Find out next time on: _Total! Drama! Aaaaaarctic Tundra!_"


	5. Part 5: In the Belly of the Island

**Part 5: In the Belly of the Island**

A strange noise emanated from the shrine far from the cabin he was in as Duncan awoke with a gasp, his eyes bulging in a state of panic.

"You alright, man?" said DJ, alarmed by the sudden gasp as he came closer to his bottom bunk.

Duncan put a hand to his forehead and exhaled, saying, "Oh, yeah, just peachy. Did you hear that noise just now?"

"What noise?"

Duncan shook his head. "I'm hearing things... I need a shower."

***Confessional***

"I don't know if it's Chef's food or what," said a tired and wary Duncan, "but I've been feeling awfully weird today. I hope the challenge isn't gonna be insane or anything, because I don't know if I can handle it..." He caught himself saying this and cleared his throat, saying, "I mean, of course I can handle it, but... just not as well right now."

***End Confessional***

* * *

When all of the contestants were lined up in front of the cabins, Chris immediately set his eyes on Heather. "How's the fox training working out for ya?"

"Don't talk to me," Heather replied with a glare.

"_That_ I can do! So! For today's challenge, I thought we should be spending some time inside rather than freezing out here." Most of the campers were relieved to hear this, but Chris remained smiling gleefully. "Of course, that doesn't mean inside the cabins, necessarily... You see, there's a cave system in the mountains you see behind you that leads down into ancient underground ruins. Your challenge, of course, is to have your entire team reach these ruins- _alive_, preferably."_  
_

"Sounds simple enough," said Tyler.

"Simple? Yes," said Chris. "Easy? Not so much. These caves are filled with traps left by the people who used to live on this island. To be honest, we don't even know what kind of traps they are! If we set them off before you even got there, it would be no fun!"

"Typical," said Gwen.

"Chef, show these brave spelunkers to the cave entrance. Oh, and keep in mind that these caves have many, _many_ different paths, and you'll probably get lost more than once. Have fun!"

As Chef led the contestants like an army marching to their deaths, Shawn caught up to Jasmine and whispered to her.

"Are you gonna be alright?" he said just loud enough for her to hear.

"Well," Jasmine replied nervously, "I guess that depends on how small the caves are."

"Sorry about yesterday... I didn't know it was you, I promise."

"It's fine, don't worry about it." She looked at the rest of her team around her. "I really wish we were on the same team..."

"Me too," Shawn said dejectedly.

"Would you mind not _mingling with the enemy_?" Heather said as she grabbed Shawn by the back of his coat and dragged him back with the Seals. She scoffed and turned to Krystal. "Can you believe him?"

"Whatever," Krystal said halfheartedly.

Heather's face tightened with annoyance as she said, "What's your damage, Krystal?"

"Nothing..." Krystal mumbled.

With the entrance to the cave before them, Chef stood to the side and motioned them inside. The sides of the cave were lit with torches until it began splitting up further down the path, becoming darker and darker from what they could see on the surface.

"Take a torch if you're scared," Chef teased them as they began their way into the cave system.

The walls were far enough apart to accommodate large groups at a time, which Jasmine was thankful for. Zoey was the first to grab one of the torches, then Shawn. The sound of bats flooding through the cave made several of them duck in fear, but Jasmine knew better.

"_Quiet_, Beardo," she said to him.

"Sorry."

At the first branch in the path, Izzy turned to her team and said, "This way! This way!" She was pointing down the smaller, more narrow path.

"How do you know that way is better?" asked Tyler. "It looks a whole lot worse, if you ask me!"

"I dunno! I just do!" she said excitedly. "I'm just gonna go ahead and go, okay? Okay." She bolted ahead of them into the long, dark tunnel as the rest of her team groaned.

"That girl is as good as gone if she loses us this challenge," said Duncan. "Are we gonna go after her or what?"

"Let her find her own way," said Alejandro. "If it gets her there faster, then good for her. If not, then we will likely get there after the other team has regardless. I say we keep heading down the more wide open paths, to be safe." When he finished talking, he sent a wink to Jasmine, who awkwardly blushed and wasn't quite sure how to feel."

***Confessional***

"I haven't forgotten what Bridgette's told me," said Jasmine. "As if I would fall for another guy other than Shawn. Sure, this guy is handsome and smooth, and Shawn is kinda short and paranoid..." She raised an eyebrow and thought for a moment. "But I love Shawn, _not_ Alejandro."

***End Confessional***

* * *

The Deadly Seals made the decision to turn down a path leading right, so that the two teams were no longer together.

"I can't stand this place," Dakota said in her whiniest voice. "I thought this was going to be another _warm_ island this season, not some frozen, horrid, abomination of Earth."

"Is that why you've been so quiet?" asked Gwen. "Suck it up already, it's been long enough."

"I know how you feel, Dakota," said Heather, moving in beside her. "We'll get through this together, okay?"

Dakota looked back at Heather and smiled, saying, "Okay..."

***Confessional***

"This is way too easy..." said a dissatisfied Heather.

***End Confessional***

Without watching where she was stepping, Dakota's foot landed directly on top of a small pressure plate that opened up the fake stone hatch beneath her. Both she and Heather fell through as Krystal, who had been standing behind them, reached down and grabbed Dakota by the arm as Heather dangled from Dakota's leg. Beneath was obscured in darkness, but it seemed to be a long drop no matter what awaited them. The rest of the team turned around, but they were already on the other side of the hatch and were too far to help pull them up.

"Stay calm!" said Trent. "Don't make any sudden movements!"

As if defying Trent's words directly, Dakota began panicking and moved around desperately, crippling Krystal's balance as she toppled into the hole herself. The three of them screamed as they fell for several seconds until landing on the side of a mountain of golden coins, sliding down until they reached the stone floor between the mounds of treasure.

"I'm alive?" asked Dakota, opening her eyes while sifting her hands through some of the gold. "I'm alive! And _rich_!"

"You were already rich," said Krystal. "Where are we?"

"How should I know?" Heather sassed. "You think I built this place or something?"

As they got to their feet, they realized the magnitude of the treasure trove they had come across. Heather's face lit up with glee at the sight of incredibly valuable treasures as far as they eye could see. "Screw the million! I just became queen of the world!"

"Ummm," Dakota butted in. "I think it was _me_ who found this place. This belongs to me!"

"And after I've been so nice to you!? I don't believe this!"

"It's mine!" Dakota yelled as she tackled Heather to the ground.

As the two fought over the wealth, Krystal casually pointed out, "As much as I'd love to end up like that guy, I think we should find a way out first." She pointed beside the two as they froze, looking at the skeleton lying there with a golden crown atop its skull.

Dakota screamed and immediately started to panic again. "We're totally gonna die down here! There's no way out! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!"

Heather's hand came to slap her across the face as she said, "Get a hold of yourself, you wannabe celebrity! You got us into this mess, and you're _going_ to help get us out of it!"

As she surveyed the area, Krystal mumbled to herself, "I wonder if there's a dragon guarding this place..." She received strange looks from Heather and Dakota, who had no idea what she was talking about. "Never mind..."

* * *

Besides Izzy, the entire team of Fearless Penguins were together as they delved deeper and deeper into the caves, always making sure to take the widest paths. DJ couldn't help but keep his eye on Bridgette so that she didn't find herself accidentally falling victim to one of the traps, but he didn't want to seem too obvious in his interest. No matter how many times he told himself that she was taken, he couldn't help but remember what they said to each other on the plane.

***Confessional***

"I don't know what to do," said DJ, being careful not to mention Bridgette's name on camera. "Everything's been telling me it's okay, but it can't be. If a girl's already with someone, it's wrong to come between them. Mama taught me better than that..."

***End Confessional***

"I think we've been here before," said Zoey, holding her torch up to the cave walls. "These markings look familiar."

"It could just be coincidence?" Bridgette suggested.

"We're going in circles for sure," said Duncan, looking down at his feet. "I remember this exact rock from the last time we went through here."

"So all we have to do is take a different path this time!" Tyler said. "That's easy."

"Yeah..." Jasmine murmured to herself, knowing that the alternate paths were the smaller ones. "Easy..."

"Nothing to fear, Jasmine," whispered Alejandro in her ear. "I'll make sure you're safe."

Jasmine smiled nervously, not sure if she was more or less comfortable from this.

* * *

"They're so dead," said a worried Shawn as the rest of the Seals continued on their way deeper into the cave. "It's only a matter of time before we trip off the rest of the traps down here. I gotta get out!"

"Calm down," said Trent. "We're doomed if we start panicking now. I'm sure they're fine down there, wherever it is. And we're gonna be fine too."

"I-I dunno," Shawn said with a shaky voice. "This place is really giving me the creeps. This whole island is..."

"I know what you mean," said Ella. "If only my prince was still here... I felt so much better when he was around."

"Uhh, guys?" Gwen said as she stood perfectly still after her foot landed on a sinking chunk of stone. "I think Shawn may have been right."

"DON'T MOVE!" Shawn yelled. "If you let your foot off, it'll trigger the trap!"

"I think I gathered as much," said Gwen sarcastically, "but I can't stand here forever."

"If it's like the last trap," said Trent, "then we need to make a rope out of our coats so that when she steps off of the pressure plate, we can pull get back up."

"Good thinking, Trent," said Gwen as the rest of the team began tying together their coats to form a line that Gwen held on to tightly.

"Ready?" asked Trent.

"Ready!" Gwen replied as she let off the pressure plate and was hauled towards the rest of her team, but there was no sudden pitfall. Instead, a blast came from further into the cave as bits of debris fell from the ceiling.

"Was that an explosion?" Shawn asked, looking around nervously. "We're lucky that didn't cause a cave-in!"

The team cautiously inched their way further into the cave, being extra careful not to step on any pressure plates, and saw what had been blown open. There was a hole on the right side of the cave walls where they could see an entire cavern filled with gold and jewels. They all shared a simultaneous "Whoa" as they stood in front of the vast, open area.

"Is there anyone here?" Ella called out before Shawn placed a hand over her mouth.

"We don't want to _alert_ them!" he whispered.

Gwen raised an eyebrow and said, "You mean... the zombies?"

"It's completely reasonable that there are undead living in a lost underground society!" Shawn argued. "And the last thing we want to do is alert them of our presence!"

"Ella!?" a voice called back as Heather emerged from atop a mountain of gold. "Everyone! We're saved!" It was a rare sight to see Heather so relieved to see someone, but Gwen was sure to remember it.

"Looks like we found worse than zombies down here," Gwen laughed as Dakota hurried to follow Heather.

"What about Krystal?" Trent asked.

"She went to go study something on the other end," Heather explained. "She got all weird and started writing things down in a notebook." She turned around to face the mountains of gold and yelled, "_Krystal! Get over here!_"

"_Just a minute!_"Krystal's voice was heard from a distance.

"We have a _challenge_ to finish, remember!" Heather yelled. "Every second we waste could mean losing it and sending _you_ home!"

A chunk of rock came crashing down in front of them as they backed off, watching more of the treasure cove fall apart from its ceiling.

"_Forget about this place!_" Gwen shouted, trying her hand at convincing her. "_You're as good as dead if you stay in here!_"

"_I'll be fine!_" Krystal called back. "_Go ahead without me! You can vote me off if I don't make it in time!_"

"Is she crazy!?" Shawn said as boulders came tumbling down, crushing the treasures beneath it and blocking them off from the other side of the cavern.

"Just forget about her!" said Heather as they ran to safety back in the dark, narrow cave. Moments later the hole left by the trap was filled in with rubble, leaving them one teammate down.

"Well," said Gwen, "I guess we can call this challenge a wash."

"Stupid Krystal," said Heather angrily. "Is that the only reason she signed up for this? Research!?"

"Who knows," Trent replied. "I hope she at least makes it out okay."

* * *

"Hold up!" DJ said as he grabbed Bridgette by the shoulder to prevent her from taking another step. The rest of the group looked at Bridgette's feet to see a tripwire set up.

"Thanks, DJ," said Bridgette. "You might have just saved me."

"Yeah, good eye, DJ," Zoey encouraged him.

"I just got lucky," DJ said bashfully as he and Bridgette once again found each other's eyes.

Alejandro, having stepped over the tripwire already, pointed out what was just around the corner to the rest of the group. "It would appear we have arrived."

The rest of them caught up with him excitedly, while Tyler caught his foot on the tripwire and fell flat on his face, triggering a rumbling noise from somewhere behind them. Looking back, they watched as a boulder the size of the tunnel itself came quickly rolling down towards them.

Jasmine reached down and picked Tyler up to his feet as the entire team dashed through the exit of the cave. The boulder rumbled as it collided with the end of the cave, blocking their exit.

"Way to go, Tyler," said Duncan. "That could have killed us all."

"We're still here, aren't we?" Zoey said, causing Duncan to cross his arms and shrug it off.

Around them stood the dimly lit ruins of stone structures long forgotten, almost indiscernible in their corroded state.

"Who would wanna live down here?" asked Bridgette as they started exploring. "It would kill me not to be in the sun for so long."

"Maybe they were hiding from something above?" said Zoey.

Several footsteps were heard on the eastern end of the ruins as the Deadly Seals showed up to the ruins from a separate tunnel. Both teams stared at the other, counting the heads to see if either of them were a full team.

"It looks as though we're one person short on both teams," Alejandro deduced, placing a hand to his chin. "Izzy and Krystal. I guess we wait here for either of them to show up."

"I guess so," said Izzy, standing beside him and making his same pose.

"Izzy!" The Penguins said in delight.

"I've been waiting for you guys for like an hour," she said. "Yeah, there was this staircase at the end of the tunnel that led straight down here. I told you guys I knew it was the right way."

The Deadly Seals groaned as they realized that even after all the time they spent fearing for their lives getting there, they had still lost the challenge.

The ding of an elevator could be heard as part of the stone wall lining the edge of the ruins opened up to reveal Chris and Chef. "And we have a winner!"

"There was an _elevator_?" Gwen asked in disbelief.

"Uh, yeah?" said Chris. "Wouldn't be much of a challenge if you took the easy way down, now would it?" He turned the Penguins. "Congratulations! You've all earned yourself a stay at the hot springs tonight!"

"_Hot springs_!?" Heather shouted. "Nobody ever said anything about hot springs as a reward! I didn't even know there _were_ hot springs!"

"You do now!" said Chris. "And judging by your team, I can take a guess at who's going home tonight."

"Good luck finding her," Gwen mumbled.

"I'm here!" Krystal called after having just arrived out of the tunnel, limping and covered in debris and dust. "And I have very important information!" She held up her notebook in triumph, but nobody else seemed very excited. "This is the find of the century! I can go back home and prove all of those skeptics wrong!"

"Riiiight..." said Chris, giving her a skeptic look of his own. "It sounds like you wouldn't mind leaving the island, then, would you?"

"This is the only reason I came here!" said Krystal, a wide smile on her face. "I'm an archaeologist, but I didn't have the team or the funds to get to this island by myself. I did some digging and found out that this was going to be the next site of the hit TV show, Total Drama, and did everything I could to get myself signed up. And it actually worked! I found everything I need to prove those naysayers wrong about this island!"

"Chef?" said Chris as Chef hauled Krystal over his shoulder and began carrying her to the elevator.

"Wait!" she said. "There's something very important you need to know!" The elevator doors were closed as she said, "Get away from this island!"

"Uh..." Zoey said. "Shouldn't we have heard what she had to say first?"

"I'm sure it's nothing," said Chris. "I doubt she's even a real archaeologist. Anyone can _say_ they are these days. Aaaanyways, you should probably head back up to the surface. Those hot springs aren't getting any hotter!"

***Confessional***

"Hmm..." said a suspicious Zoey. "Krystal did seem a little on the bizarre side, but I can't help but feel like there was some truth to what she was saying. Chris doesn't exactly have a history with being honest, after all."

*******End Confessional***

* * *

Despite none of the campers except for Krystal packing for cold weather, nearly all of them had packed bathing suits which were finally getting used as the Penguins laid back and relaxed in the hot spring a little ways up the mountain behind the cabins.

"Now _this_ is just what I needed," said Duncan, his head rested on his hands as he sat around the edge of the spring.

"To teamwork?" said Bridgette, holding up a glass of lemonade.

The rest of the team lazily held up their glasses and clinked them together before going back to relaxing. From where they were resting, they could see the Rocket of Disgrace ready lift off into the night sky with Krystal tied to it.

"This will take me back to Canada, right?" she asked, holding onto her notebook with one hand.

"Mmmmaybe," said Chris with a devious laugh.

"I wasn't kidding, by the way!" she yelled at the rest of her team, looking on at her. Heather was the angriest by far, having missed out on not only a victory, but also a relaxing stay in a hot spring that she so desperately needed. "You all need to get off this island immediately! It isn't safe to stay here!"

"Well that's good for you," Chris teased her as he pressed the button to launch the rocket. "So long, crazy lady!" He stood in front of the Seals for the second time, facing the camera. "And so the advantage goes back to the Fearless Penguins as fifteen competitors remain! Is it going to be a downward spiral for our Deadly Seals, or will they turn the tables yet again in the next challenge? Find out next time on: _Total! Drama! Aaaaaaaarctic Tundra!_"


	6. Part 6: Solitary Attraction

**A/N: More of a serious chapter this time, as well as darker, but I had planned for it to go this route since I first started writing. **

**Part 6: Solitary Attraction**

"Hey... Bridgette?"**  
**

As she stretched out on her thin bunk above Jasmine's, Bridgette slowly opened her eyes to see Zoey standing there. Yawning, she asked, "What is it?"

Zoey was visibly worried about something and a little hesitant to speak up about it. "It's... about Duncan... I don't really know who to talk to about this..."

Bridgette turned over on her side, propping her head up with her hand as she said, "Have a crush on him even though you're already with someone? If so, join the club..."

Zoey raised an eyebrow. "You have a crush on Duncan?"

"What?" Bridgette giggled a bit. "No, I meant DJ..." As soon as she caught herself saying this, she covered her mouth. "Whoops..."

"Well no, I don't like Duncan in that way. It's more of a fear I've been getting lately... There's just something off about him, and I can't figure out what."

"Maybe it's just the weather?" Bridgette said. "It's been making _me_ a little irritable lately, that's for sure."

"I don't know..." Zoey sighed. "Maybe what that archaeologist had to say was true?"

"Krystal? I don't know, she was a weird one. And even if she was telling the truth, what are we going to do about it? We're practically held captive by Chris each season and the only way to go home is to be eliminated, and I'm not intending for that to happen."

"Me neither," said Zoey, "but I can't help but feel a little worried about Duncan. If you can, just... keep an eye on him, okay?"

Bridgette smiled and nodded. "Sure. We should be looking out for each other, right?"

Zoey's eyes lit up as a thought came to her "How about we form an alliance? We could get Jasmine and Izzy in on it and make a girls' alliance. We would be guaranteed to go far that way!" She could see some hesitation and hazarded a guess as to why. "We don't _have_ to vote off DJ."

With a slightly reluctant smile, Bridgette agreed. "Okay. I'm in."

***Confessional***

"I really feel like Bridgette and I could be good friends," said Zoey. "She's just a nice person overall. Jasmine will surely agree to the alliance, but Izzy... I can't say I completely understand Izzy... Now that I think of it, I'm not entirely sure if she's the best person to have in an alliance... But she's part of our cabin, so it would definitely make alliance meetings really easy."

***End Confessional***

Having just gotten out of the showers, Alejandro had passed by the front of the girls' cabin and stayed around to listen to the entire conversation within. "Interesting," he said with a grin before continuing on his way.

* * *

Trent was on his way back to his cabin when he realized the door was being guarded. Standing there, crossing her arms and tapping her foot, was Heather, wearing the same sunglasses she had worn when first arriving at the Dock of Shame at Camp Wawanakwa several years ago. This was no ordinary meetup with Heather, and their last abnormal meetup didn't end well for anyone but her.

"Can I get inside?" Trent asked, but she didn't budge.

"I know what you're up to," she said. "And it's not going to work as long as I'm here."

"What?" he said with a cautious smile. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb with me," said Heather in a demanding tone. "I didn't take you for the scheming type, but you've proven me wrong."

"Can you please just tell me what you're talking about?"

"You aren't _entitled_ to Gwen," she said clearly. "She was scared and lonely in season 1 and you were there to make her feel comfortable, but then she got over you. That's _it_. You can't just win her back by trying to recreate that. It's low."

Trent was silent for a moment, his expression becoming less relaxed. "Why would you care? Don't you and Gwen hate each other?"

Heather scrunched up her face in revulsion. "Don't you get it? You're a psycho! You could hurt Gwen in ways I wouldn't _dream_ of, and I'm not letting my team fall apart like that this early in the competition."

"Get a grip, Heather," Trent said in a lowered tone. "I'm not hurting anyone, and if you don't think I should be with Gwen, then that's your problem, but we were meant to be together and I'm not letting anyone get in my way. Now stay out of my business, alright?" He pushed past her and slammed the door behind him, leaving a cold silence in his wake.

After the tension had settled a bit, Gwen came out from the girls' side of the cabin. She had heard it all, and her head and shoulders hung low in sadness. "Thanks, Heather..." she said weakly.

"Just remember," Heather replied, "you have to take care of Tibb from now on."

"Yeah..."

Heather looked at her for a few seconds in her sad, melodramatic state. She knew exactly what Gwen was going through, considering she had gone through the same with Alejandro. She was at least lucky to be on the opposite team as him, unlike Gwen and Trent.

"Just forget about him," she said. "You don't need those kinds of guys in your life. _Trust me_, I would know. I'm just about done with guys altogether."_  
_

"Moving on to girls, then?" Gwen joked, but neither of them laughed. Instead, their slowly widening eyes were awkwardly sharing in both of their confusion as neither knew what to say to break the silence that had engulfed them.

"You're gonna be late for the challenge," said Dakota out of nowhere as both of them broke their gaze and scrambled for something to do. "Are you two okay?"

***Confessional***

"What the hell just happened?" said a freaked out Gwen.

***New Confessional***

"_WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED_!?" Heather yelled into the camera.

***End Confessional***

Having seen it all from the sidelines, Alejandro placed a hand over his chin in contemplation. He was less than pleased at what he had just witnessed, to say the least.

* * *

"Welcome to today's challenge, campers!" Chris announced excitedly. He stood in front of the campers as usual, only this time they were on the other side of the mountains. A row of fifteen small, shabby prison cells were lined against the foot of the tallest mountain with no windows, only a door surrounded by the hollow block of stone that were the cells. "This is one I've been looking forward to, and you'll soon see why. Nearly a hundred years ago, this island was used to hold just a few maximum security criminals. Their cells remain there to this day, sort of a reminder of their suffering and pain. Nobody knows what happened to the them, though. No records were found of their releases or escape, and it was forgotten over the decades."

"So what's our challenge?" Tyler asked, confused.

"I was _getting to that_," Chris said irritably. "For today's challenge, you will be spending your time in these cells. _Alone_. All of your time inside will be added up to your team's final score. The longer you stay in, the more points you'll add to your team."

"That's it?" asked Trent.

Duncan shot a glare at Trent as he said, "Do you have any idea what solitary confinement does to people?" He looked back at Chris. "Do you have any idea what it's done to _me_!?"

"Nope!" Chris answered. "Nor do I care. And if you're so worried about it, you can bail whenever you want. Of course, I don't think your team would be too happy about that."

"You're messed up, Chris," said Duncan. "I wouldn't wish solitary confinement on my worst enemy."

"And who would want to watch us do nothing all day?" Zoey asked, several others agreeing with her.

"That's why we _edit_ the episodes, duh!" said Chris. "Only the good parts will show up in the final cut, and trust me, there will be _lots_ of good parts. Now let's get in those cells, alright people? Move it!"

***Confessional***

"Are these challenges aimed at me or something?" Jasmine said, scared. "What did I ever do to Chris!?"

***End Confessional***

As they all went their separate ways into the cells, Bridgette sent one last look towards DJ as they gave each other reassuring smiles. Gwen and Heather found each other's eyes as well, but Heather merely turned up her nose and went inside without considering her. Confused and indifferent (as usual), Gwen closed the door behind her and looked at the room she was then inhabiting. There was a torn bed against the wall, a nonfunctional toilet in the corner, and a dim light bulb hanging from the ceiling. It was as if it had been taken straight out of a horror film, and she had seen all too many to let her guard down for even a second.

This had, however, given her an opportunity to think things through. After thoroughly checking the entirety of the bed to make sure it was safe, she sat down on it with her back against the wall and asked herself what it was she was feeling that day. Trent had proven himself yet again to be obsessive, and Heather had yet again proven herself to be... not the worst person she knew. In fact, if she hadn't been wronged by Heather so many times in the past, she would have possibly considered her a decent friend. Maybe if Bridgette or Zoey had been on her team, she wouldn't be so desperate.

No matter how much she thought back on her time on Total Drama, it seemed as though Heather was always there somehow. Sure, most of those times included physical or emotional attacks on the other, but at least she had always been there...

"What am I thinking!?" Gwen said out loud, shaking her head. It was practically a sin to even consider the idea of liking Heather. After all that had happened, there was no way she would forgive and forget.

She looked around in her loneliness, curling up into a ball without realizing as she sat there in the dim, eerie light. Maybe she could forgive her... just a little...

* * *

Ella stood in the midst of a conundrum. Her hands shook as her teeth chattered in the cold, dark room all by herself. It was immediately torture from the moment she stepped inside, and it had only worsened every passing minute. She didn't want to let her team down, but she stood beside the doorway... just in case.

"Where is my prince..." she whispered to herself slowly. It didn't matter anymore who it was. She simply needed someone, anyone, to be there for her in her times of need. "I beg of you..." she continued whispering despite nobody being there to listen. "Please, give me a ray of sunlight... a friend... anything..." A cold tear began to roll down her face as her mind was shivering in terror. She could face any adversity with a smile and a song, no matter how intimidating it was. Her patience and cheerfulness knew no bounds, as anyone who knew her could attest to. But as she stood there, she began to wonder; could her virtues alone stand up to the overwhelming loneliness of solitude?

She took a deep breath and exhaled, closing her eyes for a moment before putting on a smile. If anything could be said about Ella, it was that her resolve was nearly unbreakable.

* * *

It had been an hour since Duncan was locked away, but there was no way of knowing how much time had passed for those inside. He had spent most of it trying to find weaknesses in the walls like he had done back in real prison whenever he was sent to solitary. It was a futile effort there, but here he had an actual chance at breaking open one of the walls. There was no meaning to doing so, but he had learned that keeping your mind occupied doing _anything_ was the only way to make it in prison.

As he tapped all around the stone walls to try and find a spot of weakness, he found himself moving the broken bed out of the way to get behind it. When he did, he noticed something lying underneath that caught his attention. It was a wooden handle, and as he pushed the bed further he realized that at its end was a sharp, iron axe-head. What was an axe doing in his cell?

He picked it up in one hand, wondering if the others had found something similar in their cells. Was this part of the challenge? He took a moment to think about what he intended to do with this axe, gripping it firmly as his eyes began to narrow. Normally his mind wouldn't delve into such dark thoughts, but on that day... in that cell... it felt right.

* * *

No phone, no admirers, no mirror, _nothing_. Dakota was at her limit, and she rushed for the door to open it and breathe the fresh, frozen air of freedom. Unfortunately, it seemed she was the only one to have come out of her cell so far. "Dang it!" she exclaimed, shivering in the cold.

Another door opened shortly after as Tyler emerged from it, disappointed that he was the first of his team to go. "Aw, man..."

* * *

Although she never openly needed the company of others, the dark, creepy atmosphere was beginning to have an effect on the queen bee herself. Heather was starting to crave the company of others, regardless of who it was... unless it was Alejandro; she probably preferred the loneliness to him.

After two hours of being left alone to her thoughts, the one thing her mind returned to again and again was her encounter with Gwen earlier that day. What was it about that hopeless goth that made her so tolerable? Maybe it was that they were both winners and yet neither of them had any money to show for it. Maybe it was because they both had relationships end up going badly over the course of Total Drama. Whatever caused it, she was wishing she hadn't turned up her nose before they went into their cells. She probably caused Gwen to wallow in sadness because of it, making it more likely for her to quit early and throw the challenge. At least Heather herself would be safe from elimination regardless of what happened. That was all she truly cared about.

And yet, despite her greed and her lust for power and control, she felt something strange about Gwen... It was something she pretended to feel with Alejandro, but she wasn't quite sure what it was. She wasn't even sure if it felt good or not, but it was there, somewhere.

She groaned loudly, saying to herself, "_Screw__ this!_"

* * *

Alejandro had been resting in his bed, thinking, plotting. He knew of the girls of his own team forming an alliance, and he knew that he would be the first one to be voted off unless he did something. On top of that, it seemed as though Heather and Gwen were becoming close. _Too_ close. Normally he wouldn't let it bother him. She was free to do whatever she wanted, after all. But there was something about being left alone to stew in his own thoughts that made all of this so much more worrying than it needed to be.

Heather was the only one who would bother with him after knowing who he was. She was meant for him, and he was meant for her. He couldn't stand the idea of her being with someone else, even if it was just a friend. He was the only one she needed. _Only him_...

* * *

Rocking back and forth in a curled up ball, Jasmine was about ready to scream before she decided it wasn't worth it and rushed out the door into the open air, relieved to see that she wasn't the only one to quit. Dakota, Tyler, Beardo, DJ, Bridgette, Heather, and Ella were already sitting outside waiting for the rest to come out. All things considered, she was pleased with herself.

* * *

"Are you sure there aren't any explosives on this island? There's gotta be _some_, I mean come on!"

"If there are, then they've been hidden unusually well for Chris and Chef. There are only eighteen possible locations and they would need to have spent upwards of half of the million on excavating simply to hide them there. It's highly improbable."

"Hey, what do you guys think of a karaoke night? We could get everyone on the island in the cafeteria for it!"

"But we don't have a karaoke machine!"

"Oh yeah! Well, maybe we can do it off memory!"

"Yeah, because that works sooo well. Remember our vacation in Hawaii where we forgot _all_ the words of Creep?"

Several hours had passed and it was becoming later and later into the day, but Izzy was completely content with speaking to herself for as long as she could.

"Hahaha, yeah. Good times, good times..."

* * *

Left all alone with his thoughts, Trent wanted nothing more than to be able to sleep there. What Heather said earlier that day had really gotten to him, and he was realizing that he had come off as all too obsessive and controlling. He didn't want to be seen that way. All he wanted was a second chance with Gwen, just to show her he wasn't some psycho like Heather thought he was. Sure, he may have been the one behind Cody's elimination so that he could have more space with Gwen, but he didn't want it to be a big deal.

He really cared for Gwen, like nobody else before. Was it really so bad to want to be with her again?

"You're completely in the right," said a mysterious man's voice as Trent cautiously looked around the room.

"Who's there?" he said. "Where are you?"

"I don't really know where I am. I've forgotten who I was. I must have been here for too long. I guess I'm part of the cell now."

Although he was freaking out over the discovery of another presence there with him, he also felt it somewhat relieving to know that he might not have been alone. "I don't know what that means. Are you a ghost?"

"Maybe," the voice said. "I definitely think you should be with Gwen, though. You're perfect for each other. You've both been damaged in the past, and Gwen needs someone like you ever since she lost her father."

"Those are my thoughts exactly!" Trent agreed. "I don't want to see her going down the wrong path. She needs someone there to guide her through life, and I'd always be there for her. For as long as I live, I'd promise to protect her... That is, if she'd have me. She thinks I'm some kind of freak, and she even has Heather sniffing me out like I'm some kind of suitcase with a bomb in it. Why can't I just act normal all the time? Why do I have to be like this?"

There was no response this time, and Trent began to worry. "Hey..." he murmured. "You there?" Still nothing, and he looked around the room nervously, backing himself into the corner as he came to the realization that there was never anyone there. "Oh, god..."

* * *

It felt like days had gone by inside Gwen's cell, and her eyes blinked less and less each passing minute. Noises from outside had been hurled into her cell and she was afraid to even quit the challenge in fear of something out there. Something deadly.

"GWEN!" yelled a man's voice, possibly Trent's, or maybe Duncan's, accompanied by a loud banging on the iron door. "OPEN UP! I'VE GOT A SURPRISE FOR YOU!"

She was curled up on her bed, her eyes darting from the door to the toilet and back to the door as her entire body shook convulsively. The toilet flushed on its own for what must have been the fifth time, despite it being nonfunctional. It was no longer a matter of whether or not she wanted to win the challenge for her team, but rather if she would survive long enough to see them again. Only her imagination could tell her what was going on outside, but her brain had gotten to be so numb that she couldn't think clearly.

Another series of loud, thundering bangs on the door could be heard. "DON'T BE SO RECLUSIVE, GWEN! SPEND SOME TIME WITH YOUR FRIENDS! **THEY MISS YOU! **LET THEM FREE YOU!"

Her friends? What friends? _What friends could he be talking about_? She racked her brain for faces of people she knew, any faces at all. Her mom, her brother... Neither of them were on the island, were they? What could he mean...?

_Heather?_

She stood up out of her bed as screeching could be heard on the other side of the door, but she didn't care. She had to get to Heather no matter what.

As soon as she opened the door, all of the noises immediately came to a halt as the only sound that came to her ears was the gentle howling of the night's wind. She was panting heavily as her wide eyes scanned the others, who were gazing back at her, until she came across Heather. Without thinking, she began running forward as Heather watched her in confusion. A moment later, Gwen had her arms wrapped around her tightly, breathing heavily into her shoulder.

Everyone around them watched in amazement as Heather didn't know how to respond, her cheeks forming a blush. "Hey!" she said, trying to sound annoyed. "What do you think you're doing!?"

"I don't know..." Gwen replied, not letting go. "I really don't know anymore... Just hug me..."

"That cell really must have done a number on her," Bridgette commented. "I never thought I'd see someone go crazy enough to hug Heather."

"Get a room, you two," Dakota scoffed as Beardo began a romantic beat.

Tyler was merely laughing hysterically at the sight.

"_Shut up!_" Heather shouted over all of them, forcing her arms around the slightly shorter Gwen. "You got a problem with this, you should back off before I beat the snot out of you!" She wasn't sure where that came from, but it got the point across nicely. They all stood in awkward silence, letting the two have their moment.

Out of another cell came Alejandro, not as panicked as Gwen, but still having visibly gone through a trying ordeal in his eerie solitude. When his eyes fell upon Gwen and Heather in the midst of the rest of the contestants, he could feel his blood boiling. Heather's eyes shot back at his over Gwen's shoulder, forming an unmistakably cruel glare. He wasn't sure who, or how, or when, but somebody was going to pay for this.

* * *

"You need to kill him, Zoey. It's the only way."

Zoey shook her head barely, her eyes closed as she stayed in her state of half sleep. She didn't know who was talking to her, or what it was talking about, but she didn't like it. Why would she kill someone? Why would someone _want_ her to kill someone? There was no reason for it...

Her eyes opened as she came to her senses, remembering where she was again. The voice she heard sounded so real, but she knew there was nobody there. But just to be sure...

After an extensive search inside her cell to find any speakers or devices, she gave up and sat back down on her bed. Could it have been her subconscious? Why would she be thinking of something like that?

She decided to end her time in the cell right then, opening the iron door to see Trent having just left his own cell before her. It seemed to be the middle of the night, or even early morning, and the rest of the contestants were huddled together without a trace of Chris anywhere nearby, although Chef was keeping watch from a distance.

The only people left in their cells were Duncan, Izzy, and Shawn, which didn't surprise her. The only problem would be Shawn, considering he was always so prepared for this kind of circumstance.

Before she had time to finish that thought, Shawn's cell door came flying open as he yelled "JASMINE! WHERE ARE YOU, JASMINE!?" Everyone was focused on him as he slowly calmed down, realizing nothing bad was happening.

"Shawn, I'm right here," said Jasmine, shivering in the cold as she made her way closer to him.

"Right..." Shawn said slowly. "I could have sworn I heard you screaming."

"_And that's a victory for the Fearless Penguins!_" they heard Chris yelling over the loudspeakers. "_Seals, come meet at the Rocket of Disgrace to see which one of you is going home tonight! I hope you can all think straight!_"

Having heard this, none of the Deadly Seals were very upset. After that night, it almost felt like a blessing to go home, or wherever it was the Rocket of Disgrace took them.

* * *

Another night, another elimination ceremony at the frozen shore. They were all weary, hungry, shivering, and far less sane than they were the previous day, but Chris faced them with the same smile he always had.

***Confessional***

"I voted for Trent," said a fatigued, unstable Gwen. "It took me a while to figure out who I wanted off this island the most. I think I'd be doing Trent a favor by voting him off, but it still beats having him here... He's like a wound that refuses to heal..." Her voice was sinking deeper and deeper. "And every time it scabs, and you think it's getting better, it just comes right back... I hope it's either me or him this elimination. I can't stand one more day on this island with him."

***End Confessional***

"Your votes have been cast!" Chris announced. "Tonight's marshmallows go to: Shawn, Beardo, Gwen, Heather, and Ella, which leaves Trent and Dakota up for elimination. Dakota! You were the first to leave your cell, without even trying to stay."

"Did you _see_ what it was like in there!?" she retorted. "It was like an abandoned gas station bathroom! You're crazy if you think I'd stay in there!"

"And Trent!" Chris moved on. "You've been the center of a bit of drama lately. I don't know what's been happening with a couple of ladies on the team, but you've got them a little upset with you, to put it lightly."

Gwen and Heather sat beside each other while Heather sent a mean gaze over to Trent, who sighed dejectedly in return.

"And the final marshmallow goes to..." Chris's eyes moved from Trent's to Dakota's as he grinned sadistically, watching the pain in their faces build. "Trent!"

"_What_!?" Heather said, standing up out of anger. "Don't you people understand we have a psycho on our team!? He's probably going to stab someone in their sleep tonight because of this!"

"I'm not a psycho!" Trent defended himself. "I'll give Gwen all the room she needs, alright? I won't talk to her, I won't look at her, and I won't stand anywhere near her! Just as long as it convinces you people I'm not obsessed and I'm not crazy!"

"You'd _better_ stay away from her," Heather warned him. "You've already done more than enough damage already."

"What?" Trent said, confused. "What damage?"

"It's fine," said Gwen. "He hasn't done anything wrong..." She looked up at Trent. "Just... please, make sure you understand that it's over between us. We're never getting back together."

Biting his lip, Trent kept a straight face. "I know..." It was as painful as it could get, but he couldn't show weakness. He knew that if he did, it would be used against him. "I wish the best for you..."

"...So, uh," Chris said once things had settled down. "Can we finally get someone tied to the rocket here?"

"You're all making a mistake getting rid of me," Dakota said as she was hauled off by Chef to the Rocket of Disgrace. "I deserve better! This whole season is one big dump! You know what? I'm _glad_ I won't have to be associated with this anymore. It sucks!"

"Yeah, yeah," Chris said as he pushed the button on his remote, sending the rocket flying into the air as Dakota's scream echoed from afar. Standing in front of the losing team, Chris wrapped up the episode. "And another loser is eliminated from the Deadly Seals! Can they get back in the game? Will love ever be the same? And will Dakota ever reclaim her fame? Find out next time on: _Total! Drama! Aaaaaarctic Tundra!_"

* * *

Axe in hand, shoes untied, and a hunch in his walk, Duncan couldn't seem to sleep that night. Something was calling for him, but he couldn't figure out what. He had been wandering further and further away from the camp, dragging the axe that he had smuggled from his cell along with him.

"What are you doing all the way out here, Duncan?" said a voice behind him. He turned to see that it was Alejandro, his face as calm as ever as he gave Duncan a blank, expressionless look. "They're going to be looking for you soon. It's nearly sunrise."

Duncan shook his head. "I don't know... I don't feel right. I don't wanna hurt anyone."

"And why is that? You have an axe, don't you? Axes are very good at hurting people."

"What are you trying to get at? You want a fight or what? Because last I checked, you're unarmed."

"There's no need for a fight," Alejandro said, grinning. "However, there may be some _seals_ that need _clubbing_. Or, I suppose in this case, chopping." Before Duncan could speak up, Alejandro continued. "Heather and Gwen are beginning a vile relationship. You and I both know how Heather is. Once she sinks her fangs into something, she won't let go until it's dead."

"And what about you?"

Alejandro's grin became proud. "If she is the cobra, then I am the mongoose, and Gwen is a delicious rabbit. You should have seen how easily she fell for the cobra's deceit..."

"So you want to end it before Gwen suffers? Since when do you care about Gwen?"

"Admittedly, I don't, but I also don't want to see another victim of Heather's. Would you?"

Duncan's head was a swirl of confusion as he held his hand up to his face. "Leave me out of your twisted plots. I'm not in the mood."

"Very well," said Alejandro. "But let me know if you change your mind. I know you value Gwen at least to some extent, after all..."

Duncan looked at the ground beneath him as Alejandro turned and walked away. He didn't know why, but when he had the axe in his hand, he felt as though he could do anything. It was a dark place he was finding in himself, but, at the same time, it didn't even feel like him.


	7. Part 7: Bare Necessities

**Part 7: Bare Necessities**

After three days to cool off from the last challenge, few of the campers had regained their sanity. The only person it hadn't effected was Izzy, who remained as crazy as ever. In the Deadly Seals' cabin on the boys' side, Trent and Shawn were playing chess to pass the time as a snowstorm raged on outside.

"You can't always go straight for my queen, you know," said Trent, who still had most of his pieces in play except for his queen.

"But it's the biggest threat!" Shawn disagreed. "Everyone knows once you get rid of the most threatening part of the game, it becomes easy."

"Meanwhile, you've lost both bishops and a knight to do that. Is that really worth it to you? The more pieces you have on the field, the more plays become available. The more plays that are available, the more flexible you can be with your strategy."

"I don't need a flexible strategy. It's to take out your queen, then use my own queen to kill everything else. Besides, my queen is way better than yours. Let's be honest; Jasmine would beat the snot out of Gwen in a fight."

Trent shot a glare at Shawn, who quickly became awkward.

"It was just a joke," he said, giving Trent a nervous smile. "I'm sure Gwen's great at other things."

"Gwen isn't my queen," he said definitively. "We'll never be together. She's more interested in the girl who read her diary out loud to the world and tried to get us to break up by kissing me. Because _that_ sounds better than someone who's been nothing but kind and understanding for as long as we've met."

Shawn became more and more hesitant the longer Trent went on with his built up anger.

"Here's some advice, Shawn," Trent said staunchly. "Don't be Jasmine's friend. Once she sees you as that weak, but lovable romantic, she'll lose all interest in you. She might say she likes you how you are, but that's a lie. All they ever say is a lie. You can either devote your life to trying to solve their constantly-changing Rubik's Cube or you can just not care at all, treat them with no respect, and they'll be putty in your hands!" Trent was standing at that point, his rage having reached its pinnacle.

Shawn had backed up in his chair to a safe distance as he nervously said, "...Dude, I just wanted to play some chess."

Taking a deep breath, Trent calmed down and sat in his seat again. "I'm sorry. I've just had a lot on my mind lately. I'm normally not like this."

Shawn leaned in closer and whispered, "It's this island... It's making people loopy! I feel like I'm here for a reason, though... I've gotta stop the outbreak before it begins."

"At this point," said Trent, "it wouldn't surprise me if there is some sort of apocalypse on its way..."

"Don't say that!" said Shawn, looking at each of the windows carefully. "Saying something like that is always how these things start!"

Trent sighed as he watched Shawn's paranoia. "Being trapped in this cabin is hardly any better than that cell..."

* * *

"I feel like Ezekiel..." Gwen mumbled as she stared at the ceiling from her top bunk.

"Thankfully you don't look like him," said Heather, tossing her up a granola bar as she walked by. "_Yet_, anyway."

"I don't know..." Gwen said with a smile. "Give it a few more competitions and you'll be living in caves plotting for the day you'll get your _precious_ case of money."

"If they're gonna be like this one, maybe."_  
_

"What happened to Ezekiel was just awful," Ella chimed in. "I was so heartbroken to see someone innocent become so... so..."

"Hideous?" Gwen asked.

"Disgusting?" Heather followed up.

Ella hesitated. "Uh... Y-yes, I suppose. I do hope nothing serious happens to any of us during this season, though."

"_ATTENTION CAMPERS!_" Chris's voice came blasting through the speakers. "Believe it or not, we have a challenge for you today! Meet up outside the cabins!"

"He can't be serious!" Heather said, enraged. "There's a blizzard! How are we supposed to do anything in a blizzard!?"

Gwen hopped down from her bunk and threw on her coat, pulling the hood over her head tightly as Tibb excitedly ran in a circle around her. "I guess we'll have to see and find out, won't we?"

"You're awfully chipper..." said Heather.

"It's a reason to get out of this cabin, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is!" Ella sang in excitement, her coat pulled over her as well.

"At least I've still got Krystal's coat," Heather grinned as she slid into the purple coat she had never returned.

"Isn't that practically stealing?" Gwen pointed out.

"I'll give it back after I've won the million dollars! I can buy _much_ better than this with my dad's money, anyhow."

"Of course..." mumbled Gwen, cracking a smile without realizing it. Normally she would be offended by Heather's unhealthy attitude, but it felt as though something was different then. Nothing about Heather had changed, and yet she was seeing her as a completely different person suddenly. Perhaps she was merely delving into madness, or perhaps it was a little more. She gave Heather one last glance before heading outside, a smile still stuck on her face. Heather smiled in return.

* * *

"Good afternoon, campers!" said Chris in front of the fourteen remaining contestants.

"_What are you trying to do to us, Chris!?_" Tyler shouted over the heavy winds carrying massive amounts of snow with them. They all stood close to one another, their hoods covering most of their faces as the biting cold nipped at any part of them that was exposed.

"Torture you?" Chris said. "That's kinda the whole point of this show, I thought... Anyway! For today, your challenge will be to head out into the wild and survive the night! You can stay anywhere you'd like, with whoever you'd like, as long as it isn't inside!"

"_What about caves!?_" asked Zoey.

"Caves are fine, if you can find them, but I can't say for sure whether or not they're safe! The healthiest team by tomorrow wins!"

"_Healthiest_!?" Jasmine asked in confusion. "What do mean by that!?"

Chris rolled his eyes. "Do I have to explain everything? Just survive until tomorrow the best you can! Good luck!" he said before leaving the two teams out in the white storm by themselves.

"_Huddle together, Penguins!_" yelled Zoey as her team formed a tight circle facing inward. With the sound of the wind less of an issue with their heads inside the circle, Zoey continued. "We need a plan. I think we should all stick together as close as possible so we don't lose anyone. If anyone sees a cave, we can try and set up a camp and maybe make a fire. If we need to, we can go into the woods and tie sheets to the trees in a square and put something over the top so we can have a makeshift hut. Does that sound good?"

"Good thinking, Zoey!" said Bridgette.

Alejandro grimaced at the alliance he knew they had and decided to speak up. "While that may sound good, how will we get these sheets without access to the cabins? It seems your plan is a bit shortsighted."

"We at least have to start with something," said Jasmine. "Criticizing someone else's idea doesn't get us anywhere unless you have a better one."

"He's right, though," said Tyler. "We shouldn't be listening to someone's stupid ideas."

"And who asked you!?" Jasmine snapped back. "_Make a better one!_"

"Maybe we will!" said Tyler as he looked to the other guys on his team. "Let's make a guys' alliance right here and now. From here on out, you girls are on your own and we'll see how well you do once you're left with no muscle!"

***Confessional***

"So Tyler isn't the smartest person," said Alejandro. "This can still work out well to some extent. With four votes on each side, they'll be voting for Tyler and we'll be voting for Zoey. It will likely end in a tiebreaker, but it's a tiebreaker that doesn't involve me."

***End Confessional***

"Everyone, please!" Zoey yelled. "Is making separate factions really more important than winning the challenge? We need to stay together as a team!"

"I agree," said DJ. "We're not going to get anywhere if all we do is argue. Voting should come second to teamwork."

Bridgette found herself smiling warmly as she listened to DJ rationalize the problem. He was kind, thoughtful, strong, good looking... For the life of her, she couldn't think of a single reason why she shouldn't at least try to be with him... And then, of course, she remembered Geoff and snapped out of it.

***Confessional***

Bridgette sat nervously without making eye contact with the camera. "I-I know some people might be saying certain things about me, but I'm faithful, I really am."

***End Confessional***

* * *

"So, uh," Shawn said, twiddling his thumbs. "I'll be seeing you guys!" He turned around and ran off into the white blur of the blizzard away from the rest of his team.

"_What the hell, Shawn!?_" Heather yelled after him, but he was long gone by then. Angrily, she turned to face the rest of the Seals and said, "_Listen up!_ As leader of this team, nobody else is going to leave here! _Got it!?_"

Beardo stood straight and saluted, making trumpet noises as if it were a wake up call at a boot camp.

"Staying together is definitely the best option," Ella agreed happily. "I'm so glad you think the same, Heather."

"Whatever," said Heather as she turned towards Trent. "Are we gonna have a problem?"

"No problem," he said with a glare. "Not unless you count my inevitable elimination the next time we lose."

Heather walked closer, getting right up to Trent's face. "You got a bone to pick? Let's settle it. Right here."

"I'm not about to fight you," Trent said as he backed off. "Go ahead. Take your trophy and be happy."

Gwen's eyes widened. _"__TROPHY!? _So that's all I am!?"

"_Yes!_" Trent shouted back. "It's all you've ever acted like! You pretend like you're some kind of loner, but you always need someone strong to protect you! Well guess what, Gwen!? You can't have it both ways and I'm sick of sitting on the sidelines watching you move on from one helpless victim to the next! Me, Cody, Duncan, Cameron, and now Heather all get to feel your bite! How many more lifeless bodies are you going to leave in your trail before you're done!?"

None of them spoke for at least five seconds as the winds howled past them until Heather began to shake her head. "You're pathetic." She started to walk away from him as Gwen soon followed behind, as well as the confused Ella and Beardo after a moment to consider what had just happened. All that was left standing there was Trent in his seething rage, which was quickly cooling off as he realized what he had just said.

Maybe Shawn was right, he thought to himself. Maybe he really was going insane because of this island.

* * *

"Oooh!" Izzy exclaimed as she began to run off after something in the distance before Jasmine reached an arm out and lifted her by the back of her coat.

"Not so fast, ya little cassowary."

"What's a cassowary?" asked Tyler.

Jasmine laughed. "You've never heard of a cassowary before?" Her question was met with silence from the rest of the group as they made their way through the raging blizzard. "Large, flightless birds? Blue heads? Highly aggressive?"

"Doesn't ring a bell," said Duncan.

"I thought everyone had heard of cassowaries," Jasmine said.

"I'm sure they're lovely," said Alejandro, giving her a smirk. "Beautiful and exotic."

Jasmine put a hand to her chin and raised an eyebrow. "No, not really. Frightening and hideous, more like." Bridgette couldn't help but smile at the wall Jasmine had put up in front of Alejandro's advances.

Duncan nudged Alejandro's arm and said, "_Smooooth._"

"I no longer require Jasmine's approval," Alejandro whispered, slightly annoyed. "I could still use your help, however."

"Yeah, yeah..." Duncan grumbled, still uncertain about the offer. His axe was tucked firmly inside of his coat, just in case he needed it. He wasn't sure what he would be using it for, but he felt as though it was all too necessary to keep it with him at all times. _Just in case_...

* * *

After an hour spent gathering wood, the four Deadly Seals hunkered down against the side of a mountain where a small rocky overhang provided meager protection from the harsh environment. Beardo was trying to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together, but none of them actually knew how it was done.

"I'm gonna kill Chris when I get back," Heather growled. "And then I'll eat him!"

"Whoa, now," said Gwen, placing a hand on her shoulder. "That's just the hunger talking. We're not cannibals."

"Easy for you to say!" Heather whined. "You had a big breakfast!"

Gwen thought back on earlier in the day and remembered something important as she reached inside her coat to find the granola bar Heather had tossed her still in its wrapping. "I almost forgot about this."

Ella politely intruded. "Um, I apologize if I'm being rude, but... Wouldn't that be cheating?"

"Don't listen to her," Heather whispered to Gwen, her eyes glued on Ella. "She just wants it all for herself..."

"N-no!" Ella said nervously. "Not at all! I only wish to win the challenge like we all do, yes?"

"I don't see how it's cheating," Gwen explained with a sly expression. "I _found_ this lying around, after all. It isn't my fault Chef keeps his snacks scattered around the island." Heather gave her the OK symbol with her hand as she tore a piece of the granola bar for herself. "Do you want some, Ella?"

"Um..." Ella looked from the snack to the faces of her teammates and said, "N-no thanks... I'm not hungry."

"More for us," said Heather as she chewed. "Thanks, Ella. You're a good friend, you know that?"

Ella perked up after hearing this. "Oh, thank you, Heather. You're too kind."

"What exactly does Chris expect us to eat, anyway?" asked Gwen. "There are no wild animals and nothing _grows_ here. He probably just wants us to starve."

Smoke was starting to emanate from within the makeshift fireplace that Beardo had been working on, and a small flame sprouted deep within it.

Ella clapped excitedly. "Very good, Beardo!" Her clapping was cut short when a loud _thump_ came from above them as a short burst of snow and ice slid down off the mountain outside of their tiny, cave-like dwelling.

"What was that?" asked Gwen before the answer came in the form of a large white figure tumbling down to the snowy ground just a few feet away from them. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me..."

A great roar came from the polar bear as it picked itself up and looked at the four of them.

"_There are more animals on this island!?_" Heather whispered sharply. "_That lying son of a-_"

"What a beautiful coat of fur you have, my dear polar bear!" Ella said as they all turned to her in confusion. "_Your claws might be for shredding, and your fangs might be for crushing, but your big bear heart is most definitely for loving!_"

"What are you doing!?" Heather whispered, but Ella continued singing as the polar bear watched.

"_Sometimes I know it can be hard, and deep inside you must be scarred, but if you open up your heart, we can begin right at the start!_" As she took a deep breath to begin the next portion of whatever song it was she had in mind, the bear opened up its maw and roared as loudly as it could before taking a swipe at Ella._  
_

Gwen and Beardo both snatched her up before the its claws reached her and, along with Heather, they ran as quickly as they could away from there.

"Oh, no..." Ella said, her hair blown back by the bear's roar. "That usually works."

"Has _singing_ ever helped you from a _bear attack_ before!?" Heather yelled angrily.

"Why, yes!" Ella said happily. "It has!"

"Just keep moving!" said Gwen, looking back to see the polar bear on all fours chasing after them. Up ahead they could barely make out a cabin, but it didn't appear to be any of the cabins they had been in before. Without much of an option, they ran up the front steps and hurries inside, slamming the door behind them as the polar bear roared from outside, then proceeded to sniff underneath the doorway.

"Where did this cabin come from?" Gwen asked as they all searched around. It had two windows on each side, a single bed, a couple tables, some chairs, and a white rug sprawled out in the center that seemed to be made from polar bear fur. "Not that I'm complaining."

"I think the better question is where did the _polar bear_ come from!?" said Heather. "Seriously! A polar bear!?"

"It makes sense," said Beardo as the rest of them looked at him. "I mean... We're in the arctic. This is where polar bears live."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Heather said as she walked closer to him. "I'm asking why we're just seeing one now! You'd think a polar bear would be easy to spot after all the exploration we've done already."_  
_

Beardo shrugged. "Hibernating?"

"We should be thinking about the positive!" Ella interrupted, giving Heather a warm smile. "We now have a place to stay that's safe from bears and blizzards."

Gwen held a hand up to her chin. "Still, it's strange... A polar bear comes out of nowhere, and then we find a cabin just sitting here even though I'm sure we've been to this part of the island before..."

"Also," Heather added, "is it just me, or is it warm in here?" She took off her coat and hung it on the back of a chair. "This place is actually kind of... comfortable."

"Wow," said Gwen. "I think that's the first time I've heard you not complaining about where you are."

"Oh, shut up."

"She's right!" Ella agreed. "It really is nice and warm in here."

A knocking came on the front door, surprising all of them. "Can you _please_ let me in!?" It was Trent's voice, and it was angry.

They looked at one another in confusion before Gwen responded. "There's no... polar bear out there?"

"What are you talking about!?" he said. "Let me in!"

Gwen hurried to the door and opened it carefully, letting Trent inside before quickly shutting it. "You didn't see any polar bear out there?" Gwen asked.

"Okay, I've had enough," said a shivering Trent. "This isn't funny, so just drop the act already!"

"What act?" Heather retorted. "There really was a polar bear chasing us! We all saw it!"

Trent shook his head. "You know what? I was coming back to apologize, but then you all decide it would be funny to run away and act like I'm a bear! _Really_ mature, you guys! Even Ella with her singing..."

Gwen's eyes opened wide as she looked to Heather, who must have been thinking the same thing. "Uh..." Gwen stammered.

"Beardo," Trent said. "Back me up here, man. This got old as soon as it started."

Beardo didn't respond, his face filled with fear along with the rest of them.

"Trent?" asked Gwen. "...Are you a polar bear?"

Trent stared blankly at her, having visibly given up entirely. "You know what? I'll see myself out. I'd rather freeze to death than listen to any more of this." He pulled his hood back over his head and calmly left the cabin, closing the door behind him.

Heather rushed to the door to lock it with a sigh of relief. "Guys?" she said after turning around to address the others in the cabin with her. "If we lose this challenge... Can we _please_ vote out Trent this time?"

The other three nodded immediately.

**A/N: This episode will be in two parts, since it's already as long as it is. So, in the immortal words of Chris: See you next time on Total! Drama! Aaaaaarctic Tundra!**


	8. Part 8: A Dark, Dark Night

**Part 8: A Dark, Dark Night**

"Look what I've got!" said Zoey as she entered a cave that held the rest of her team within. Her arms were full with raspberries as she sat down beside the fire they had set up. "I didn't know there were fruits that could survive these temperatures!"

"Where did you find them?" said Jasmine, reaching over to grab a couple.

"They were just growing from the ground near some trees not far from here. Not a bad find, huh?"

"Not a bad find at all," said a smiling Duncan. "That might be enough to get us through the night." Alejandro and Tyler both looked at him with judging glares as he rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, you two," he said. "This whole guy's alliance thing is a stupid idea."

Alejandro pulled him in closer and whispered, "So you'd rather fall one by one to the girls? You may not like it, but this alliance is the only way we're staying in this game..."

"Whatever," Duncan said as he shrugged him off. "If we lose this challenge, maybe I'll think about it..."

"I'm starting to worry about Bridgette and DJ," said Jasmine. "They've been out for a good while now. The sun's about to be going down."

Duncan chuckled. "Let's be honest; they're probably busy making out. Those two have had it out for each other ever since we got on the plane."

* * *

"Hey... DJ?" Bridgette said timidly as they walked side by side through the woods. The blizzard was still raging, but the light cover of the trees made it a bit more bearable. "I know we haven't talked much about it... but... I feel like we should be. We have something between us. Something good. And... maybe we should look into that a little more."

DJ didn't respond, his eyes blankly staring ahead, which made Bridgette nervous.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I really didn't mean for this to get weird. I just thought it was about time we settled this, you know?"

There was still no response as DJ continued moving forward silently, pulling one of the two idols from the first challenge out from his coat.

"Wait..." Bridgette said, taking notice of the idol. "What are you still doing with that? I thought you left it on the shrine?" She looked ahead of them through the snow being whipped around by the wind every which way and saw the shrine which she had just spoken of standing there in the woods, its idol still resting atop it. The idol in DJ's possession must have been the one the Deadly Seals had, but what was he doing with it? "DJ? Hello? You're starting to scare me."

As they approached the shrine, Bridgette stood at a safe distance as she cautiously watched DJ replace the idol with his own. He then raised the former idol high above his head before striking it against the shrine, breaking it in half.

* * *

Duncan grunted loudly as he held a hand up to his forehead, reeling in pain for no discernible reason.

"Duncan?" said Zoey, standing up from her spot beside the fire as she hurried to Duncan's side. "Duncan, what's wrong?"

"_Get away__!_" he yelled as he shoved her aside, trudging painfully deeper into the cave with the rest of the team watching. It was a pain that cut deep into his skull, only intensifying the strange feelings he had been receiving recently. Again he could hear the piercing shriek of the shrine from far away, but he didn't know why. He only knew that it meant something bad.

"I only want to help, Duncan!" Zoey persisted.

"Let him be," said Alejandro. "He clearly doesn't want your help."

She swirled back around at him with an angry look on her face. "Do you know something I don't!? If so, tell me!"

Alejandro shrugged calmly. "It's just as much of a mystery to me as it is to you."

"Oh! Oh!" Izzy exclaimed out of nowhere. "I know what it is!" She rubbed her hands together menacingly. "He's finally seeing my ways... Hehehehe..."

"I think there's really something wrong with him, you guys," said a concerned Tyler. "Duncan, you know you can talk to us, right? I had a coach in high school who taught us that talking things through really helps. I think he was arrested for drug possession, but he still really got through to us."

"Just _shut up!_" Duncan yelled, echoing through the cave. "In case you can't tell, I've got a _really bad migraine_ and you guys aren't exactly helping!"

"Oh..." Zoey said in embarrassment. "Sorry."

Duncan was turned away from all of them, his hand clutching the axe hidden away under his coat. He knew it was more than just a headache, but he didn't want the others to know that. Maybe, if he was lucky, this would all blow over and nothing bad would come of it.

***Confessional***

"I know Duncan's hiding something from us," said Zoey. "It's pretty obvious with the way he's been acting. I just wish he would trust me enough to tell me. I wouldn't be much of a friend if I didn't want to help him."

***End Confessional***

* * *

"Whoa..." said DJ, coming back to his senses. "What just happened?"

"I don't know," Bridgette replied, coming closer. "You just went into a trance or something. Are you feeling alright?"

DJ looked at Bridgette and smiled. "I am now."

As the two stared into each other's eyes, the shrine began making an eerie humming sound just like the last time DJ placed an idol on top of it. Smoke bellowed out of its sides as the sky directly above them grew darker.

"DJ?" asked Bridgette, watching the sky darken with every passing second. "What did you do?"

DJ simply shook his head. "I have no idea. I didn't even know I had that idol with me!"

The strong winds that had been present all day long died out in almost an instant as the only sound to be heard was the humming of the shrine.

"Let's just get out of here!" Bridgette said.

* * *

"Oh, my..." Ella said to herself as looked out the window to the sky. "It's becoming awfully dark outside."

"There's something seriously wrong with this island," said Gwen, looking out the window on the opposite side of the cabin. "Those are _not_ clouds."

"Whatever," said Heather. "It's probably just Chris trying to scare us. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole polar bear thing was his idea, as well."

"I don't know..." Gwen replied. "All of this seems pretty elaborate. And Krystal did say-"

"Forget Krystal!" Heather interrupted. "She cost us that challenge and then tried to cover her ass by saying she was an archaeologist with 'important information.' If it was so important, she wouldn't have come here solo and on a budget. There's no _mystical power_ or whatever causing these things to happen, it's just Chris. It's _always_ Chris."

"Really?" Gwen said with a grin. "You seemed pretty scared when you realized Trent was the polar bear."

"Yeah, well, now I'm not..." Her words trailed off as the black smoke continued to make the island darker and darker, worsened by the fact that it was already so late into the afternoon. "Is it seriously becoming pitch black?"

"I don't like this..." Ella said, creeping closer to where everyone else was, frightened. "Does anyone have a light?"

The spark of a lighter could be heard, but there was no flame.

"That's not funny, Beardo," said Heather as all the light from the sun gradually faded, leaving them nearly blind inside the warmth of the cabin.

"Just stay close together," Gwen suggested. "Our eyes will adjust to the darkness, right?"

Heather scoffed. "Yeah, until the sun goes down. Then we won't be able to see a thing. We need to find something in this cabin to use for light. And maybe some food, while we're at it."

Ella spoke up nervously, her voice shaking. "Could I... um... stay with someone until we find light? I'm normally not afraid of the dark, but... I suppose I am tonight..."

"You can stay near me, Ella," said Gwen. "I don't blame you for being scared. We all are. Right, Heather?"

Heather crossed her arms. "Whatever."

***Confessional***

"I might not know what's going on," said Heather, "but I do know that my previous hopes for an alliance have been crushed. Dakota was useless, and Krystal was a lunatic. Color me surprised. Still, I wouldn't say I'm in any danger. Gwen and I have become... uh... decent friends, I guess, and Ella and Beardo recognize me as the leader of this team. That leaves Shawn and Trent, but they can be taken care of easily. And the sooner Trent goes, the better."

***End Confessional***

* * *

"_Hello!?_" Bridgette called out into the woods. "_Penguins!? Seals!? _...Chris?"

"I'm so stupid," said DJ. "Why did I lose control of myself like that?"

"It's not your fault. There are some really weird things going on and I'm not sure what's behind it all." She cupped her hands in front of her mouth and continued shouting. "_Anyone!?_"

Shawn dropped down from his branch above them, a lit torch in hand, putting a finger in front of his lips as soon as Bridgette shrieked in fear. "Shh! It's me, Shawn!"

With a hand over his heard, breathing heavily from the shock, DJ said, "Shawn! Why'd you have to scare us like that, man!?"

"Keep your voices down!" he whispered. "They can hear us better than we can see them in this light."

"No offense," said DJ, "but this isn't the time for zombie talk. There's some really scary stuff going down!"

"Have either of you been bitten, scratched, or wounded in any way?" Shawn asked, ignoring him.

"Uh... no?" said Bridgette. "Listen, we think this has something to do with the shrine. All of this smoke came from it after we swapped out the idols."

"Oh, no..." Shawn said, worried.

"What?" DJ asked. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know!" Shawn replied. "But you _never_ swap out anything that's on something ancient! Well, not unless everything is all dire and apocalyptic or something, because then it makes everything better. But things were fine! What made you want to swap the idols!?"

"He didn't mean to," said Bridgette. "He was under some sort of trance. We don't know what it was."

Hearing the word 'trance,' Shawn took a step back with a frightened look in his eyes. "Right... Well, I'm sure you two will be fine. I need to... uh... go this way..." He quickly turned and ran as fast as he could.

"Hey, wait!" DJ called after him. "We could really use your help finding our way back!"

"Opposite way that I'm going!" Shawn yelled, looking back at them to make sure they weren't chasing him as he felt a firm grip wrap around the front of his collar and lift him off of the snow-covered ground. Facing forward, he could see Alejandro's face mere inches away from his own.

"Well, well..." Alejandro whispered. "It appears I've caught a seal."

"Uh... H-hey, man... Would you mind maybe letting me down?"

"That is something that I could do." Alejandro's grin was as sadistic as ever. "Then again, I have other options... Who do you think would end up winning this challenge if a member of your team ended up tragically buried deep under the snow and ice? That doesn't sound very healthy, Shawn..."

At that point, Shawn's breathing became frantic as his heart sank in his chest. "Come on, man," he said desperately. "I know you're just trying to scare me."

"I might be trying to scare someone, but it isn't you. The people I wish to scare is everyone else once they dig up your frozen body. Imagine the _terror_ in Jasmine's eyes, and her _anger_ when she finds out that it was Bridgette, the same person who wanted to protect her from me." He continued to gaze into the terrified eyes of Shawn, the flame from the torch reflecting off of his own pupils. "I run this island, Shawn. Either I'm winning the million, or everyone else _disappears_. Starting with you."

He went quiet as his eyes distanced themselves from Shawn warily before hitting him in the stomach and tossing him down into the snow. He then twirled himself around to catch the branch of a tree before it collided with his head. Holding it was Zoey, who was surprised to see him react in time.

"Perhaps it would be good to kill two birds with one stone," said Alejandro with a grin as he snapped the branch in half, tossing it aside. "And I have just the stone large enough for the job."

"I knew you were pure evil," said Zoey, "but _this_? This is just sick!"

"I'm merely playing the game the way I know how." Alejandro advanced slowly towards Zoey, who was backing away cautiously. "I've been burnt to a crisp, stuffed inside a robot, had my heart broken, and now I can say that I've been in solitary confinement. I have no remorse for my actions anymore. I used to, surely, but now I've become hollow. Now, all I truly care about is having the million and seeking vengeance on every last member of this pathetic excuse of a competition. Oh, and... Zoey?" he said as Zoey's footing started to give way as she realized she had stepped onto ice. "Have a nice swim." He shoved her on her back as she slid along the ice, closer and closer to where it opened up into the ocean itself.

Grasping and clawing at the ice to stop herself, Zoey couldn't manage to slow herself down enough before sliding right off into the frigid water, her entire body feeling an immediate shock as her brain went into a panicked state.

Back on his feet again, Shawn threw himself at Alejandro, who struggled to pry him away as the two fell to the ground together. "What's wrong with you!?"

With one final push, Alejandro managed to pull the angry, paranoid boy off of him and slammed him into the ice, making sure to hit his head hard enough to knock him out.

"What's going on over here!?" called Bridgette from close-by. With some quick thinking, Alejandro left Shawn's unconscious body in an incriminating pose before dashing away from the scene altogether.

* * *

"Aha!" Heather said as a warm, glowing light illuminated the cabin from a gas powered lamp she found while rummaging around inside a closet. "No thanks to the rest of you, I've found our light!"

"Good," said Gwen as the four of them gathered around the lamp. "It just needs to last until morning. I usually sleep with the lights off, but tonight I think an exception is in order. I don't want anything creeping up on us."

Ella squealed under her breath at the thought. "But that won't happen, right?"

"How should we know?" said Heather. "Chris could be up to anything at any time. You'd better just get used to that, princess."

Ella's face stood still at the sound of that word, her heart aflutter with emotions.

***Confessional***

"Princess?" said a confused Ella in deep thought. "Well... Heather isn't exactly a... _prince_... as far as I know... Hmm... Yeah, I don't think that would work out very well."

***End Confessional***

"So who's sleeping on the bed?" asked Heather. "Since I found the light, and since I'm the leader, I should be able to decide who gets to share it with me."

"Big surprise," Gwen said while rolling her eyes.

"Well, since Beardo is too big to share the bed, it should be either you or Ella. I _guess_ I'll just randomly pick you, Gwen." She wasn't looking at Gwen, but rather crossing her arms in false discomfort. "And I guess we're just going to starve tonight since going outside is like signing a death warrant at this point, so let's just hurry up and get to sleep."

"As you say, Your Majesty," said Gwen with a smile as she made her way to the bed.

"Um..." Ella said timidly. "I truly don't wish to be a bother, but... Could I possibly fit on the bed? It does seem big enough... I just don't want to sleep alone."

"Sure," said Gwen before Heather could speak up. "There's plenty of room for three."

"Oh, thank you so much," Ella said with a heartfelt gratitude as she climbed into bed next to her. "You've all been far too kind to me."

Heather groaned as she fell into bed on the other side of Gwen, looking away from the other two. Eventually she could feel Gwen's face close to her neck and shrugged her shoulder for her to back off, but she didn't. "What are you doing?" Heather whispered, slightly annoyed.

"Enjoying your lovely company," responded Gwen sarcastically. "Relax. I'm not about to bite your neck. Besides, you're the one who wanted me here."

"As if..." Heather mumbled. "I don't want any of you freaks being this close to me. Whatever you have is probably contagious."

Gwen's face remained the same, having long been immune to Heather's insults. "You know... I used to think we were nothing alike. You were this pretty, popular, judgmental bitch that everyone loved to hate, and I was the loner that wanted nothing to do with anyone else." She took a deep breath. "I had a rough childhood. I won't bore you with the details, but I stopped trusting people after I lost my dad. I just wanted to be left alone and distance myself from people so that I didn't have to deal with anyone's lies or get hurt anymore."

"Does this sob story have a point?" said Heather impatiently. "Because we could be asleep right now instead."

"When I first met you," Gwen continued, "I was convinced that you were the exact opposite. I thought you were one of the people who were out to hurt me. But I think I get it now... You hurt for the same reason I hide; we're too afraid of people to let them get close enough. We both surround ourselves with these walls, and even though they're a different color, they're made of the same material. Fear. So, I know I've asked you this a long time ago in a different context, but now I'm going to ask you again: What's your damage, Heather? What made you so afraid?"

Her question ended with silence as Heather's tense shoulders slowly began to sink back down. "I ran my school. Big surprise, I know. But during that time, I learned a lot about people. I learned how desperate and heartless a nice person can become. I learned that everyone has an ulterior motive one way or another. And I learned money is the only thing that's important in life thanks to my parents. Is that what you wanted to hear? I'm a spoiled brat who learned to hate everyone for being just as bad as I am deep down."

Gwen gave her a reassuring smile even though she wasn't looking at her. "Well, I never thought I'd admit to this, but... I get where you're coming from, Heather. I really do."

Heather rolled over to face Gwen directly. "Does this feel a little... weird?" she asked. "You and me... like this..."

"It doesn't have to be..." Gwen said softly, looking directly into her eyes. Their heads slowly moved in closer until their lips were touching, and it all became simple. The kiss lasted less than ten seconds, but it felt like an hour had gone by. When their heads separated, they barely knew what was going on anymore. It was all a blur of sappy emotions that neither of them were too keen on. But, as with everything good that happened there, it ended abruptly.

"CAMPERS!" Chris yelled at the top of his lungs from every speaker on the island, giving all of them a jolt as they sat up in surprise. "Come back to the cabins IMMEDIATELY! This challenge is officially OVER!"

"How much do you wanna bet someone died?" asked Heather as the other three looked at her strangely. "What? It was bound to happen sooner or later."

* * *

"_Come on_, people!" Chris yelled at all of the campers as the unconscious bodies of Shawn and Zoey were being hauled off by Chef. "It would be bad enough if it was just the Deadly Seals who cheated, but then _this_ has to happen! Smoke starts pouring into the sky thanks to Bridgette and DJ, and Shawn decides to go rogue and nearly kill another competitor! I'd say you both lost, but I'm just going to go ahead and deem the Seals the losers because I am _sick and tired_ of you ungrateful, violent kids and your disrespect for my challenges!"

"We were running for our lives and that cabin was the only way out!" argued Heather. "I don't know if you noticed, but there's a _polar bear_ on the loose!"

"Uhh, yeah," said Chris, unamused. "I watched the footage of you guys running away from Trent like he was some sort of monster. Pretty cold for someone you had just tossed out to freeze."

"What!?" Gwen said. "We can see things with our own eyes! There was a polar bear!"

"Whatever. You get to vote someone off, and they'll be joined by Shawn and Zoey on the Rocket of Disgrace. Normally I wouldn't do a triple elimination because nobody likes it and our ratings suffer, but I don't care! This is the _worst_ assortment of campers _ever_! Plus, Shawn's a murderer and Zoey needs medical attention or whatever. Maybe if I'm feeling better, I'll let someone back on the show when the merge comes. But after today, it would take a whole lot to make me feel any better! I'm going back to my trailer! Tell me when the loser's been decided!"

As he stormed off, both teams stood in silence by the light of torches places in front of the cabins.

"So was there really a polar bear?" asked Tyler.

Bridgette looked up at Jasmine, who was clearly unstable after hearing the news. "How are you holding up?"

"How do you think I'm holding up?" she said harshly. "My boyfriend tried to kill someone. I mean... I know he's got his quirks, but..." She was finding it difficult not to cry. "It just couldn't have been him... There has to be another explanation, you know? Shawn would never do that! Has anyone considered the possibility that it was Zoey who snapped? Maybe Shawn was just defending himself?"

"I don't know..." Bridgette said. "He did seem a little different when we first found him. I think he was convinced that me and DJ were turning into zombies."

Jasmine let out a long sigh. "None of this makes sense..."

As Bridgette moved closer to comfort the distraught Jasmine, she could have sworn she saw a smirk from Alejandro. Her eyes narrowed as her suspicions began.

***Confessional***

"Call me paranoid," said Bridgette, "but Alejandro has to have something to do with this. I just know it."

***New Confessional***

"Seriously," said Tyler, "is there a polar bear or not!?"

***End Confessional***

* * *

Later at night, near the shore with both Shawn and Zoey tied to the rocket, the Deadly Seals sat quietly as Chris impatiently stood before them with a plate of marshmallows.

"If I call your name, yadda yadda yadda," he said, beginning to toss the marshmallows at contestants. "Gwen, Ella, Beardo, you're safe. The last marshmallow goes to..."

Heather looked over to Trent, giving him an evil grin as she slid her finger across her throat. She was cut short as a marshmallow hit her head and fell into her palms.

"Looks like you're going home, Trent!" said Chris. "I feel your pain. If I could change the results of these votes, I would, since you were the only one on the team who _didn't_ do something to make me mad.

"It's fine," said Trent. "I knew this was coming and I need to get off this island anyway. Maybe after I'm gone the rest of my team can have time to grow up."

"Oh, please," said Heather. "You should be telling that to Chris for pulling this prank on us, however he did it. But we saw a polar bear and that's all there is to it."

"Whatever. Just get me out of here." He passed by Gwen and didn't bother to look at her, but she no longer cared. She was just glad to have finally gotten rid of him.

As the rocket took off, Chris stood in front of the Deadly Seals yet again. "And so!" he said after a deep breath to get more into character. "In a surprising turn of events, three contestants leave the island tonight! The Deadly Seals are looking awfully thin now with only four members left, while the Fearless Penguins nearly double that! How will things turn out for either of them? Who am I thinking of bringing back and why will it obviously be Zoey? How will Jasmine end up dealing with the fact that her boyfriend is a total psycho? And _when_ will this smoke hovering over the island disappear!? Seriously!? Find out next time on: _Total! Drama! Aaaaaaarctic Tundra!_"


	9. Part 9: King of the Hill

**Part 9: King of the Hill**

Early in the morning, a sleep-deprived Jasmine was outside of her cabin and climbing the mountain for a good place to have some time alone. What she didn't expect, however, was for Izzy to already be sitting atop the ledge she was headed towards. She was just sitting there in a meditative pose with her eyes closed, smiling as usual.

"Oh," said Jasmine, "sorry. I didn't know you were up here."

"Come," Izzy said with more than a hint of mystique in her voice. "Sit beside me. I've been expecting you."

Jasmine raised an eyebrow and looked around in case something was waiting for her when she took a seat. "Um... Okay." She cautiously sat down beside the strange girl as silence ensued. "So... Did you have anything to-"

"_Tell me what you see_ when you look out over the horizon," Izzy said out of nowhere.

"Uh..." Jasmine gazed into the distance to see the long stretch of frozen, wooded land until it gave way into the ocean that stretched as far as the eye could see. The darkness of the black smoke was still looming over the island, blocking out any view of the sun they would have. "I see an island that's already taken far more than it could give back. That's for sure."

"You miss the one known as Shawn, don't you?" Izzy asked. "You're afraid he really was responsible for Zoey being pushed into the ocean. But Izzy knows... It wasn't Shawn."

"Then who was it?"

As she looked beside her, she saw that Izzy was then trying to balance herself on her head while laughing. "I dunno!" she answered, falling backwards. "The truth lies at the top of this mountain! And today you must climb to the top!"

"I wish that were true," said Jasmine. "I wish I could live in your world for a little while and be carefree."

"Jasmine! Izzy!" called Chris from below with a loudspeaker. "I see you've already started today's challenge without me announcing it! Good hustle! I like that!"

Jasmine looked to Izzy again. "How did you know...?"

"Know what?"

"Uh... Never mind."

* * *

"That's right, campers!" said Chris in front of both teams as they stood outside the cabins, mostly groggy and not yet fully awake. "Today, you'll be climbing the tallest mountain here! As you can see, the top extends above the smoke, so you'll be able to see the sky again, maybe. Of course that also means that you'll have to pass _through_ the smoke to get to the top, and who knows what kind of smoke that is! I certainly don't! The first team to have all of its members at the top of the mountain wins the challenge! Starting now!"

Both teams started running to the foothills of the mountain, taking separate paths up. Having only four members to their team, the Deadly Seals stayed close together as they began to ascend.

"I've never climbed an entire mountain before!" said Ella. "I usually spend my time in the valleys, prancing and singing with the birds and deer!"

"That's great, Ella," said Gwen, "but we really need to focus on the challenge this time! We can't afford to keep losing people left and right!"

"Look who's full of team spirit today!" teased Heather as she grinned maliciously. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you've been bitten by the love bug!"

Gwen's face immediately reddened as she smiled sheepishly. "Let's just win this... okay?"

* * *

The Fearless Penguins made an orderly line as they made their way up a rugged, rocky wall that was barely gradual enough to climb with their bare hands. Bridgette found herself beneath Alejandro, her glaring eyes fixed on every move he made. She was going to be sure that he didn't try anything unusual.

"Hey," whispered Jasmine, coming up beside her. "You seem awfully interested in staring at Alejandro lately..."

"I'm onto him," she replied. "I'm convinced he was behind what happened with Zoey and Shawn."

Jasmine looked surprise for a moment before saying, "You think so? I can't remember him being there with the rest of us last night, but it was so dark I could hardly say who was or wasn't there. I only remember him being there once we got back to the cabins."

"I don't know Shawn or Zoey very well," Bridgette went on, "but I know Alejandro well enough to know that this isn't beneath him..."

"Is that all you have to go by?" said Jasmine, slightly losing her confidence in her accusations.

"Last night..." said Bridgette, lowering her voice even more. "When I pulled Zoey out from the water..."

* * *

"_Zoey!?_" Bridgette said in a panic as she placed herself carefully over the edge of the ice, Zoey's red hair barely visible in the darkness. She reached into the extremely cold water with both hands as DJ slowly crawled his way closer, being careful not to push himself or Bridgette over the edge. The water gave her entire body a shock as her arms were submerged, pulling Zoey's eerily stiff body back onto the ice. "Oh, god..." Bridgette muttered, realizing that she was completely unresponsive. She began pressing down on her chest like she remembered practicing when she was learning how to surf, and she gave a big sigh of relief when Zoey began coughing almost immediately.

"_Ah-_" Zoey said shakily, still coughing up frigid water. "A-ah." It sounded like she was trying to say something, but at that point her brain must have been nearly frozen solid. After a few more coughs, her neck loosened up and she passed out again.

"Is she gonna be alright?" DJ said, worried.

"I think so," Bridgette answered. She was still breathing heavily from the moment of panic. It had been a long time since she had been that scared.

* * *

"So..." Jasmine said as they neared a ledge to climb up on. "You think she was trying to say 'Alejandro' before she passed out?"

"I didn't at first," said Bridgette, "but I do now. It makes more sense than Shawn just slipping and hitting his head after pushing Zoey into the ocean."

"You may be right," said Jasmine. "I really hope you're right, at least..."

"It does mean we have a killer on the island still..." Bridgette reminded her. "Just keep an eye on him for now."

"Got it."

***Confessional***

"I know Bridgette has a bias against Alejandro," said Jasmine, "but she could be right. Either way, I have a feeling this won't end well..."

***End Confessional***

* * *

"How much further do we have to hike?" complained Heather. "My feet are already getting sore."

"We're not exactly getting close, if that's what you're asking," said Gwen. She stopped all of a sudden and looked to her left at a small cave opening. "Unless..."

"You don't expect me to go in there, do you?" said Heather. "There are probably all kinds of dirty bugs and animals living inside."

"Yeah, well, we're not exactly up to the same athletic standards as the other team, so we should take any advantage we can get."

"And what tells you that cave isn't just a dead end? And how is Beardo going to fit in there?"

Gwen was already fitting inside the opening, pushing herself further until she ended up on the other side, barely able to see a foot in front of her in the darkness. What stood before her, though, was a surprise. "Uhh," she said, "I think you might wanna come in here."

Heather groaned as she tucked herself inside. "This had better be worth it."

"Is it a hidden garden?" Ella asked as Heather fell flat on her face after pulling herself through. "I've always wanted to find one of those."

"Not a hidden garden," said Gwen.

Once the three of them had made it through with Beardo still left on the other side, they gazed up in wonderment at the giant golden statue of a man with an exact resemblance of DJ, except with fur vestments instead of his usual casual clothes. His expression was resolute, and his stance was proud and adamant, unlike the real DJ. There were small holes high above them that were leaking light down into the cave, illuminating the statue for them to see.

"Why does _DJ_ get a golden statue built of him!?" said Heather. "He hasn't even won any seasons like I have!"

The opening behind them blew open and Beardo rammed himself into it, falling down in a pile of rocks left over.

"I guess that's one way of getting through," said Gwen.

"Oh, this is marvelous!" Ella exclaimed, prancing closer to the statue. "It's beautiful! DJ would be so happy to see this!"

"We should be knocking pieces of it off and keeping it for when we go home," Heather suggested.

"Remember what happened last time we found riches beyond comprehension?" Gwen reminded her. "It all got crushed in an elaborate trap."

Heather wore a devious grin. "Oh, I wouldn't say _all_ of it..."

"Either way, we should be using this statue to get us up higher. That light is sunlight, which means the top of this leads above the smoke."

"That is an excellent plan, Gwen!" said Ella, as happy as ever. "Let us begin climbing this magnificent statue!"

***Confessional***

"Oh, I do love seeing sunlight after cloudy days!" said a smiling Ella. "It's simply magical! Much less magical than rainbows or the gift of life, but it's up there I assure you!"

***End Confessional***

* * *

The higher the Fearless Penguins climbed, the windier it became. They had to suffice with taking the walking path instead of climbing cliffs, as it had become far too dangerous. Bridgette and Jasmine continued glaring at Alejandro while Izzy stared off into random directions with a carefree smile on her face.

"Okay, that's enough," said Alejandro as he turned around to face his two observers. "You two are clearly up to something. Spit it out now."

"Feeling a bit guilty?" asked Bridgette. "I would be, too..."

"What's going on here?" asked Tyler.

Bridgette pointed a finger at Alejandro. "He's the one responsible for pushing Zoey into the ocean."

"Do you have any proof?" Tyler continued.

"Uhh..." Bridgette stopped for a second to gather her thoughts, looking around at everyone staring at her. "Well, no, but I know it was him. Zoey was trying to say his name before she passed out."

"Then why didn't you bring this up last night?" asked Alejandro innocently. "Shouldn't that have been the first thing you told someone?"

Jasmine took a step forward. "I know Shawn," she said firmly. "And I know he would never do something like this. Can any of you remember Alejandro being there with us when this took place?"

"I'm sorry, Jasmine," said Alejandro, "but you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that Shawn did this. I'm sure he wasn't doing it out of malice. He probably thought that Zoey had been infected and tried to get rid of her as quickly as possible. It's a shame what fear can do to the mind."

Jasmine began rolling up her sleeves. "I'm just about done with your condescending attitude, ya little cu-"

"Guys!" DJ interrupted. "We shouldn't be fighting like this in the middle of a challenge! We're losing valuable time!"

"He's right," Alejandro agreed. "We shouldn't be fighting each other like this when we're on the same team. I'm sorry if I've said anything to offend you, Jasmine."

Jasmine's fists were clenched tightly as she gritted her teeth. "_Fine_."

***Confessional***

"There's no doubt he did it," said an infuriated Jasmine. "That lying scumbag is going down."

***New Confessional***

"It's a shame how much love can blind someone," said Alejandro. "It can make someone completely sane and rational into a delusional mess..."

***End Confessional***

* * *

"Careful!" Heather called out as Gwen's foot stepped on her hand during their climb. "Do you _want_ me to fall to my death!?"

"Only sometimes," Gwen called back, reaching the top of DJ's outstretched, giving her an easy path to a ledge jutting out from high above where they began. To her right, she was pleased to see a narrow path branching off from the ledge that would lead them exactly where they wanted to go. "Hah!" she exclaimed. "And you didn't want to come this way!"

"Shut up," Heather said as she joined her on the ledge, followed closely by Ella. Beardo was still struggling as all four of his limbs were inching along the length of the golden arm to where they were. "I'll admit you were right when we're standing on the top of the mountain before the other team."

"Shouldn't take long like this."

"This is so exciting!" said Ella. "It's no wonder people climb mountains and explore caves when it can be this much fun!"

"I think we're making an explorer out of her," Gwen giggled as they made their way up the narrow path. "I wish I had a camera so I could take a picture of us when we're standing on top of the mountain. I can't wait to see what my subscribers think of this season when I get home."

"Oh, we're very happy for you!" Ella replied eagerly.

Gwen raised an eyebrow. "I didn't take you for someone who's into the whole social media scene."

"How else would I be able to watch the World Tour song compilations? You and Heather have wonderful singing voices! Oh, it would be simply spectacular to have a group singing event with all of us! That would be a dream come true."

"Well keep dreaming," Heather said. "My singing ended when World Tour did, and I'm never bringing it back."

"Oh..." said a dejected Ella. "But you seemed to be enjoying it. I thought it would be lovely to have a duet between the two of us, but... it's fine if you don't want to."

Heather merely rolled her eyes.

***Confessional***

"Okay, so she's right," Heather said with her arms crossed, "I liked the singing _a little bit_. Like she said, I've got a good voice. Why squander it?"

***End Confessional***

"Here!" called Gwen as she pushed through a blanket of snow and ice to unveil a radiant sunlight that burst through the dark cave, making the contestants shield their eyes from it.

A loud gasp could be heard from Ella as she rushed forward to bask in the sunlight, her feet sinking into the heavy snow wherever it was they were on the mountain. Below them was the thick haze of the black smoke, looking more like a foggy sea than anything else. "Beautiful sunlight!" she exclaimed. "Oh, I've missed you so much!"

"There's the top!" shouted Heather with a wide grin, pointing up above at the peak of the mountain. "You actually did it, Gwen!"

"Let's get going, then!" Gwen said as they all gradually made their way up the incline with their hands and feet.

With her hand about to pull herself up to the top of the mountain, Heather could hear a low growling sound and a familiar white creature staring her in the face. Practically petrified, she stayed as still as she could as the others behind her watched her in confusion.

"You don't need to wait for us, Heather," said Gwen.

The polar bear gave a mighty roar, nearly knocking Heather backwards down the mountainside.

Ella pranced up towards the beast, humming as she went, until she was standing on the flat surface of the peak. "That's no way to behave, now, is it?" she said, waving a finger in front of the bear's nose. "_Your shouting and roaring is crude and abhorring, but I know there's something deep down that you're hiding..._"

Gwen spoke up. "Ella, you're going to be that bear's first meal in months if you don't run away!"

"_It's true our last meeting didn't go as planned, but this time my greeting is on much higher land!_"

"What does that even have to do with anything!?" said Heather.

"We're almost there!" they all heard from below as Tyler emerged from the smoke, coughing and hacking along with the rest of his team.

"Look!" Heather yelled at the bear. "_A tasty buffet of__ smoked pork! Grab a plate and bring a fork!_" The polar bear's ears perked up as it turned its attention to the Penguins, sliding down the mountain to go after them. "_Make sure to eat the Spanish dork_!" Heather added as Ella clapped joyfully.

The four of them stood atop the peak of the mountain victoriously, cheering in glee.

"_Congratulations to the Deadly Seals!_" Chris's voice could be heard from a loudspeaker as he held on to the side of a helicopter emerging from the smoke. "You've won yourself the rest of the afternoon in the hot springs!"

"_Yesss!_" Heather exclaimed as she and Gwen immediately went for a hug, then realized what they were doing and let go of each other.

"Good teamwork, you guys..." Gwen said, slightly embarrassed.

"It's all thanks to you!" Ella said cheerfully. "I only wonder why I'm not able to get through to that bear..."

"Who knows," said Heather. "It's probably not even a real bear."

* * *

The Fearless Penguins were doing anything but living up to their title, running in terror from the polar bear scattering them all across the mountain. Bridgette was trying to keep her eyes on Alejandro, but he was nowhere to be seen in the chaos that ensued. When she quickly turned around, she was met with a hand around her throat, lifting her up off the ground. Alejandro's face was stern and steady, his eyes as calm as ever as Bridgette struggled to breathe. She looked around her to see if anyone was nearby, but they had been left completely alone.

"All I want to say is that I'll enjoy this," he said to her as he walked closer to the edge of a cliff, leaving her dangle over it by the end of his arm. His grip loosened as Bridgette began to fall down the side of the mountain, but only for a moment before slowing down to a halt. She had reached for a pickaxe that she had stuffed inside her coat and dug it deep into the snow and ice lining the mountain.

Laughing, Alejandro said, "I should have guessed you'd take that off of Shawn!"

"Why are you doing this!?" Bridgette yelled, climbing her way back up slowly.

"Because I get a million dollars if I win, of course! I don't care about the rest of you! I'd strap you all to a bomb and sleep soundly that night if I could!"

"You're a monster!"

Alejandro leaned down closer to her, getting ready to push her down with his foot. "I'd rather be a rich monster than a poor nobody."

Bridgette latched onto his leg tightly before he had a chance to kick her, climbing her way onto him and striking at him with the pickaxe, only to have her arm held back before dealing the blow.

"You're putting up _way_ more of a fight than Zoey or Shawn did! I wouldn't have expected that from a peaceful hippie like you!" He pushed her off of him, throwing her aside where she rolled a couple of times before coming to a stop and picking herself up again.

As Alejandro stood there anticipating a move from Bridgette, she instead turned the other way and began a sprint away from him in search of the others. Alejandro grunted and chased after her, watching bright blonde ponytail bob up and down with each stride. If he could only get close enough he could grab it and pull her to the ground, but she was surprisingly fast for someone who would rather be on the water than on land.

Taking the path leading further up the mountain, Bridgette threw herself into the smoke in an effort to lose him. She knew all too well that she needed to find someone else as quickly as possible to warn them, but she wasn't sure where anyone was anymore. Once she had gotten through the smoke, however, she could see that the winning team had taken off on Chris's helicopter and were headed back down. Though she tried to wave her arms to try to grab their attention, all she got in return was Heather making a rude gesture at her.

"Oh, yes," said Alejandro, startling her. "This will make a much better spot for a murder. Nobody else to witness it and they'll all assume it was the polar bear."

"Please!" Bridgette pleaded. "You don't have to do this! Besides, once Shawn and Zoey wake up they'll let everyone know it was you! Killing me will only further incriminate you!"

"I could care less about being incriminated," said Alejandro. "As long as I'm the last living person on this island, I'll grab the million and take off on Chris's helicopter. From there, who knows. Maybe I'll go out in a blaze of glory. It doesn't matter as long as I get that million!"

Both of them turned towards someone else's footsteps making their way up towards them. It was Jasmine, uncovering her nose and mouth from the smoke as she looked at both of them in confusion. "What's going on here?" she asked.

"He's trying to kill me!" Bridgette shouted before Alejandro had a chance to respond.

Jasmine began rolling up her sleeves with a mean glare. "Not for long he isn't!"

"Great..." Alejandro said under his breath. "Okay, then. Beat me up if that's what you choose. But I wonder what the others will think when they see poor Alejandro ganged up by two contestants of the girls' alliance? I'll get bandaged up and the two of you will be sent home for going out of your minds. In fact, go ahead. I won't even resist."

"_Gladly_!" Jasmine exclaimed as she stomped the snow beneath her with each step closer. "I'll just beat you so bad you'll have to be sent to a hospital! After what you did to Shawn, I'll risk the million without a second thought if it means taking you down!"

Alejandro merely smirked and held out his arms in a welcoming display. "Go ahead."

Jasmine stopped and looked at him strangely, questioning his motives. "I don't like the sound of that."

"He's just trying to trick you!" Bridgette assured her. "End it now!"

After taking two steps forward, Jasmine felt her foot falling deeper into the snow than usual as her entire body began sinking as well as the snow itself. She grabbed onto the ledge in front of her where the snow wasn't falling through the ground and held on for her life.

"Thank you for making this easy," said Alejandro with his usual grin as Bridgette could be heard running at him with the pickaxe held above her head. Alejandro stomped on her hands and kicked them off the ledge, letting her fall into the pit below. The view of the sky grew smaller and smaller the further she fell until she landed hard, blacking out instantly.

* * *

When she came to, she could feel the low rumble of the Rocket of Disgrace at her back as it fired up.

"_Wait_..." she mumbled, looking beside her to see Bridgette unconscious at her side. "_Wait_!" she said louder, catching Chris's attention as the rest of her team looked on from a distance. "_I'm fine! Don't send me off! It was Al!_"

"Yeah..." said Chris. "As much as I'd love to keep this season going on longer, the network gave me pretty strict orders to make sure that the two of you were sent to the E.R. Sorry about that."

The rocket shot up into the sky as Jasmine yelled down at him, but her words were drowned out.

"And that's it for this episode!" said Chris, standing in front of the Fearless Penguins. "It's down to nine competitors, and the teams are nearly equal! Will our contestants stop getting injured!? Can the Deadly Seals make the comeback of a lifetime!? Is it fair that I'm eliminating multiple people at a time for near-death injuries that probably weren't their own fault!? I can answer that one right now! It's _no_! Stick around for the next exciting episode of: _Total! Drama! Aaaaaarctic Tundra!_"

* * *

"This is a bad idea... This is _such_ a bad idea..." Jasmine loosened rope after rope tying her to the rocket, trying to leave Bridgette's fastened. The last thing she wanted to do was bring a friend into her dangerous plan. After several ropes had been loosened enough, she slipped through and fell several feet, preparing herself for the landing.

A giant splash exploded from the water at her landing, and for a few seconds she remained submerged, until...

"THIS IS SUCH A BAD IDEA!" she screamed as soon as she surfaced, every part of her body felt the freezing water envelop her. "OH GOD WHY DID I DO THIS!" She quickly started paddling herself closer to the arctic island in her sights, hoping she didn't lose all control of her body before she made it there. "_I'm coming for you, Alejandro!_" she said shakily. "_I'm not giving up that easily!_"


End file.
